Texas Tech Broadcaster Makes Impressive One-Handed Catch
Not only did a member of the Texas Tech baseball broadcasting team make a hell of a one-handed catch during a game last week, he made it look easy.
During the 8th inning of the Red Raiders’ game against the West Virginia Mountaineers last Friday, April 16, Tech infielder Jace Jung hit a scorcher of a foul ball straight back toward the play-by-play booth. That’s when you hear broadcaster Geoff Haxton say “coming right back at us” right before you see him calmly extend his left hand and snag it up.
While he didn’t flinch at all, he was in quite a bit of pain saying, “my hand hurts so bad right now.” However, according to Slate, the pain was relatively short-lived:
It hurt really bad for two hours afterwards and then the swelling just kind of went down. It ended up being really fun. I caught the thing mostly with my left index finger, that’s where the pop really happened. But it was a lot better than I thought it was going to be. It hurt terribly.
Not surprisingly, Geoff has some college baseball experience, which came in handy. He told the website that he played catcher for a couple of years at a small college in Oklahoma. Once he figured out he didn't have time to move out of the way, his catcher’s instincts kicked in and he snagged it.
I seriously doubt that a broadcaster’s one-handed catch would qualify as the “Play of the Year,” but hopefully Geoff will at least get an honorable mention for that one.