Former MLB pitcher and Olympic gold medalist Ben McDonald suffered a ‘severe concussion’ and two cracked vertebrae after suffering a scary 25-foot fall from a deer stand.
McDonald, who was selected first overall in the 1989 MLB draft, was taken to the hospital and does not remember anything from the nasty incident.
On Friday, the 57-year-old shared a video of himself in a hospital bed, asking those around him why he was there and who he had been with. ‘I must have a concussion. I can’t remember a whole lot,’ he says.
‘So what happened?’ McDonald, who played for the Orioles and Brewers, is then heard asking. After being told that he fell, McDonald responds: ‘I don’t fall out of tree stands. Did it break?’
The ex-baseball star is informed that the ‘chain or the strap’ broke. Nasty scratches and cuts can be seen running along his right forearm.
‘This is what a severe concussion looks like and sounds like! (I still don’t remember anything)’ McDonald wrote on X, alongside the video.
Ben McDonald suffered a ‘severe concussion’ and two cracked vertebrae after a 25-foot fall
‘Apparently I fell out of a deer stand 25 feet up yesterday morning… I’m fine and appreciate everyone checking on me.
‘Very lucky….concussion and 2 cracked vertebra’s (sic)….I’ll be back in #Birdland soon calling @Orioles games! Thank you for all ur thoughts and and thank you to the Doctors! See yall soon!’
McDonald played in Major League Baseball between 1989 and 1997 after leaving LSU. He helped the USA win Olympic gold at the 1988 Games in Seoul and was inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame in 2008. McDonald now works as an broadcaster for the Orioles and ESPN.
On Friday, during Baltimore’s game against the Rays, Orioles announcers said they were ‘thinking of’ McDonald.
‘I talked to him today, and he goes, “Well I don’t remember the fall,”‘ Jim Palmer said during the segment.
‘He said, “I’ve been doing this for 35 years and I never fell.” He said a lot of the people that he was with… don’t like to go up 25 feet.
‘So I think Ben’s gonna join them now. I said, “Isn’t there a parachute or something that can[help] for 25-feet falls?”‘
