Baseball legend breaks leg during Angels opening pitch

Don Baylor, the hitting coach for the Los Angeles Angels, broke his leg during the ceremonial first pitch of the Angels opening game against the Seattle Mariners on March 31.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Baylor apparently broke his leg when he moved to catch an off-target pitch by former Angel Vladimir Guerrero, and was helped off the field to the dugout by two employees while the Angles watched in disbelief, and was later taken to a hospital. He will have surgery on his right femur on April 1.

The injury seemed like a bad omen, and the Angels ended up losing to the Mariners 10-3.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with Don right now," said the Angels manager Mike Scioscia. "Obviously it's a freak [injury]. We'll see how it turns out."

St. Rita the patron saint of baseball.

The 64-year old is a survivor of multiple myeloma, a form of bone marrow cancer. He was diagnosed with the disease in 2003.

Baylor was brought on as the hitting coach in October during off-season after he left the Arizona Diamondbacks to replace Jim Eppard. He was also a hitting coach for the Milwaukee Brewers and St. Louis Cardinals and a six year manager for the Colorado Rockies from 1993-98, with whom he won Manager of the Year in 1995.

In 1999 he became the hitting coach for the Atlanta Braves before managing the Chicago Braves from 2000-02. Baylor was the bench coach for the New York Mets from 2003-04, and spent 2005 with the Seattle Mariners as a hitting coach.

From 2009-10 he was back with the Rockies as a hitting coach, and then moved to the Diamondbacks for two years from 2010-12.

Baylor played for the Baltimore Orioles from 1970-75 before being traded to the Oakland Athletics. In 1977 he was a free agent for the Angels and with the New York Yankees in 1983. He also played with the Boston Red Sox in 1986 and the Minnesota Twins in 1987. His last season was in 1988 for the Athletics.

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