The price of victory

Have you ever noticed that when a player hits a walk-off home run he will toss aside his batting helmet before reaching home plate and being mobbed by his teammates? This is done for safety reasons.

Here is a lesson on why it's a good idea to get the batting helmet out of your hand before the teammates get to you:

On Thursday night, Windy City's Tim Alberts – he played right field for Washington in 2008 – smacked an RBI-double in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the ThunderBolts a 7-6 victory over Traverse City. Alberts still had his batting helmet in his hand when greeted by his teammates between first and second base. During the celebration, an overly enthusiastic teammate knocked the batting helmet back into Alberts' face and caused a gash on the player's forehead.

The ThunderBolts' trainer bandaged Alberts' head so that he could make the bus trip to Washington last night. On Friday morning, a doctor in Washington put four stitches in Alberts' forehead to close the wound.