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ORONO – It’s a good bet that they didn’t have this in mind when the Bangor Lumberjacks came up with the idea for “Halloween Night” promotions.
Bangor starting pitcher Danny Miller suffered what looked like a horrific injury when he was struck by a hard line drive off the bat of Nestor Smith in the fifth inning of Friday night’s loss to Brockton.
“I didn’t see anything. I don’t even remember reacting at all. I just got hit and fell to the ground,” he said.
Miller crumpled in a heap after Smith’s laser shot found his face on the fly. Teammates and Brockton players alike were at the mound in seconds, trying to help him as he writhed in pain.
“It was like when you punch somebody,” Miller recalled. “The pain is intense and then it goes away. This felt like somebody kept banging me in the same place over and over again.”
Miller had been struck hard at the top of his left cheekbone, just under and to the left of his left eye. He was bleeding, but not as badly as he expected.
“To tell you the truth, the first thing I did was look for my eyeball, and at first I couldn’t find it,” said the 23-year-old lefthander. “Then I found it and felt my face with my hand to see if there was any blood, but I wasn’t bleeding that bad. I just had this little cut.”
Miller was attended to by team trainer Angela Potter before being driven by ambulance to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, where he was X-rayed, treated, and released.
“I just had two butterfly Band-Aids and didn’t need stitches,” said Miller, who returned to the park before his coaches and some of the players had finished showering. “I got pretty lucky. I do have a hairline fracture of some kind of optical bone, but it’ll heal itself.”
Miller said his cheekbone took the brunt of the blow. His skin didn’t split, but the red, black, and blue marks from the seams (stitching) of the baseball that hit him were still visible on the skin to the immediate left of his eye Sunday afternoon.
Although he considers himself lucky, Miller probably won’t be looking too fondly on future Friday the 13ths. In the meantime, he’ll be charting pitches as he waits for his baseball-sized swelling to go down and a doctor’s OK to pitch.
“I have trouble at night seeing when my eye closes up,” he said. “This is the most it’s been open in two days.”
Even as he as struggling with the pain, players and coaches on both teams managed to keep him smiling.
“I was laughing on the mound because the third baseman said ‘If you were 6-6, that would have hit you in the chest,'” said the 5-foot-10 Miller. “Then [Bangor catcher] Brad [Hargreaves] said, ‘You know that was 0-2?’ because we have a fine if you give up an 0-2 hit.”
Bangor manager Kash Beauchamp quickly allayed Miller’s money woes, however, as he told Miller he had paid his $25 fine “with that big bruise on your face for the next three weeks.”
Sea Dogs moving up, around
Ever wonder who that elusive player to be named later is when you’re reading about trades in the daily sports transactions?
Well, in this case, his name is Tonayne Brown, formerly the starting left fielder for the Portland Sea Dogs.
Brown, one of the Sea Dogs’ top hitters, has traded teams and organizations as he was shipped by the Boston Red Sox to the Detroit Tigers, who assigned him to their Double-A Erie (Pa.) Sea Wolves affiliate.
Brown was traded to complete a minor preseason deal Boston made with Detroit. Brown was hitting .296 with two homers, 13 RBIs, and two stolen bases for Portland.
Sea Dogs fans will have a chance to see Brown again when Erie visits Hadlock Field Aug. 22-24.
Guthrie riding the rail
Belfast native Sazi Guthrie is 1-1 with a 5.03 ERA for the Gary Southshore RailCats. Guthrie, who was signed after being drafted from a free agent tryout camp, has made two starts. The 23-year-old righthander has allowed nine walks and 20 hits while striking out 11 in 19 2/3 innings.
Andrew Neff can be reached at 990-8205, 1-800-310-8600, or aneff@bangordailynews.net
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