We've seen what happened when a golf ball gently bounced off a camera lens, but what happens when a baseball bat is violently flung toward a very expensive camera? And more importantly: What happens to the guy holding the gear?
Turns out that very little happens to both camera and cameraman. Or at least very little happened during Game 4 of the American League Championship Series when Brett Gardner's bat flew toward the broadcast video camera held by freelance videographer Steve Angel.
The calm videographer didn't even flinch as the top of Gardner's bat made contact with the front of his camera. Instead he focused on doing his job:
A-Rod was about to cross home plate, so that's what I was doing. I was shooting him. And then all of a sudden, if you look at the video, it gets pretty frosty.
Part of the reason Angel was even able to continue shooting as calmly as he did is that the actual camera was damage-free thanks to some protective measures:
Angel said it would cost "more than a house" to replace one of those TBS lenses if it is broken. But in front of each lens, the camera sports a protective glass cover on the outside, which was all Gardner's bat wound up damaging.
While everyone is cheering about the fact that the bat hit this protective glass cover instead of the camera lens, I'm just plain relieved that it didn't hit Angel's head. Kudos to him for staying so calm while only a few inches from a concussion. [MLB]