Rieber: Liner off Huff's head a horrible moment to watch

Four sets of tire tracks lined the infield dirt at the shortstop position at Yankee Stadium in the bottom of the third inning yesterday.

The tracks were from a golf cart that had been driven onto and then off the field from the ambulance bay behind the left-centerfield wall.

The passenger for the return trip was Indians pitcher David Huff, who minutes earlier had been hit above the left ear by a line drive off the bat of Alex Rodriguez.

Huff, a 25-year-old lefthander from San Diego, tried to get his glove up as the ball zipped toward him. He just didn't have enough time. It hit him and ricocheted toward the rightfield line.

The impact bent Huff back. He fell to the mound face-first as the play went on around him.

It was an RBI double for A-Rod, and there wasn't a soul on the field or in the stands who cared about that.

Nick Swisher, as he rounded third base to score on the hit, pointed at the mound and tried to call time out so someone could get to Huff. As A-Rod pulled into second base, he put both his hands on his helmet. Then he jogged toward the mound to see if Huff was OK.

Once the play was over, the Indians rushed to the mound from the dugout, the infield, the outfield. Emergency service workers tended to Huff - still face down on the mound with his hands on his head - as Rodriguez crouched behind the mound, head down, the concern on his face obvious.

The holiday weekend crowd of 46,599 gasped when the ball hit Huff. Then there was silence after he went down, fear when he didn't get up. Then there was a series of "Oooohs'' when replay after replay of the moment of impact was shown on TV screens throughout the ballpark.

Finally, mercifully, after a delay of only minutes that must have felt like hours to the people who know Huff, he was deemed OK enough to load onto a stretcher. Then onto the golf cart for the trip from the mound to the ambulance bay and then to New York Presbyterian Hospital.

The crowd cheered as Huff was lifted onto the cart and as he was driven off. The fans went absolutely wild when Huff raised his left arm and gave a thumbs up.

To say it was a goosebumps-producing moment is to understate it. Anyone whose heart wasn't in their throat might want to turn in their ID card for the human race.

The Indians later announced that Huff never lost consciousness and had no memory loss. A CT scan was negative and he remained in the hospital for observation - but only for a few hours. Incredibly, he was back at Yankee Stadium before the end of the Indians' 13-11 victory.

"He actually wanted to move more than what they were allowing him and was able to talk,'' Indians manager Manny Acta said. "He doesn't have concussive symptoms right now, but we'll see how he feels tomorrow.''

According to Yankees public relations director Jason Zillo, A-Rod left the stadium after the game in an attempt to visit Huff in the hospital. When told Huff already was back at the ballpark, A-Rod - who got Huff's phone number - said: "I'm so thankful that he's going to be OK.''

When the half-inning ended, the Yankee Stadium grounds crew wiped out the tire tracks at the shortstop position. It won't be that easy to erase the memory of what happened to David Huff - and the fear of how it could have been much, much worse.