Collins visits injured Salazar
Mets manager Terry Collins visited Braves minor league manager Luis Salazar, who was struck in the face by a foul ball on Wednesday. Credit: AP
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Mets manager Terry Collins did not take the team bus for the 120-mile drive from Port St. Lucie to Disney's ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex Saturday.
Collins drove himself because after the Mets-Braves game, he wanted to visit with an old friend, Braves minor-league manager Luis Salazar.
Salazar is showing improvement in an Orlando-area hospital after getting hit in the face with a foul ball in the dugout here Wednesday. Salazar, 54, was knocked unconscious when he was struck near his left eye by a liner off the bat of Atlanta catcher Brian McCann.
The former major-league third baseman and outfielder was taken off the field in an ambulance and airlifted to Orlando Regional Medical Center, where he has had at least two surgeries. The immediate concern was for Salazar's life.
Braves third baseman Chipper Jones called it "the worst thing I have ever seen on the field."
McCann, who called it a "helpless, sick feeling," was so shaken that he asked to come out of the game. He went to the hospital to check on Salazar, who is scheduled to manage the Braves' Class A team in Lynchburg, Va.
Salazar is making progress, although he might need more surgery to determine if he will retain sight in his eye.
"I hope he recovers from it all," said Collins, who managed Salazar in winter ball and hired him as a minor-league manager with the Dodgers. "We all wish him well. We're all praying for his recovery. I'm anxious to see him today."
Former big-league first baseman Andres Galarraga, a guest spring training coach with the Braves, visited with Salazar on Friday night and said he looked better and was in better spirits than Galarraga had expected.
"I was kind of happy to talk to him," Galarraga said. "When I saw him, I expected something more scary. The swelling's gone down very good. No headache, and we were talking a lot. He was making some jokes."
Fellow Venezuelan Johan Santana gave Collins a hand-written note to pass along to the popular Salazar, who played 1,302 games with the Padres, White Sox, Tigers and Cubs from 1980-'92.
McCann, a lefthanded batter, pulled a foul ball into the outfield side of the first-base dugout. Salazar went down immediately and hit his head on the dugout floor. Paramedics detected shallow breathing and gave him oxygen in the dugout.
"It's truly amazing that it doesn't happen more," Collins said. "Some of those balls shoot into the dugouts and there's always somebody not watching."
