The Japanese translation of HBP, where a batter gets hit by a pitch, is "dead ball." I wish they would change that, eliminate the word "dead" and adopt the English phrase "hit by pitch."
We almost had a dead player in a recent game after a hitter took a 148-kph fast ball in the head below his helmet.
It was Hiroshima Carp reserve catcher and pinch hitter Tsubasa Aizawa who got nailed directly below his left eye by Yokohama Baystars closer Shun Yamaguchi in the ninth inning of a game at Yokohama Stadium Aug. 2.