9-Year-Old Bat Boy Killed in Freak Accident

A 9-year-old boy in Kansas died last night after being hit in the head with a baseball bat on Saturday afternoon while "doing something he loved." Kaiser Carlile was a bat boy for the amateur team the Liberal Bee Jays. He was retrieving a bat after an out when he "[strayed] into the on-deck circle" and was struck in the head by a player taking a practice swing, NBC News and the Wichita Eagle report. Kaiser was wearing a helmet at the time, and an umpire with EMS experience cared for the boy until first responders got to the scene. "Right before he fell, the umpire and the base player both rushed up and caught him before he hit the ground," a witness tells KWCH. "They all clustered around him quickly. It was really silent."

The team announced his passing "with the permission of the family, and with much sorrow and a very broken heart" in a Facebook post made today just after midnight. The Bee Jays created a GoFundMe page to help offset expenses for Kaiser's family, and about $10,000 has been raised so far. In a statement, the National Baseball Congress wrote that while the NBC "has experienced tragedy many times in 84 years ... it’s difficult to remember a day that is darker than this one. Sometimes life doesn't make sense and this accident certainly is a memorable example. Kaiser was simply doing something he loved." Bob's Lutz's full column on the tragedy for the Eagle is worth a read. (More baseball stories.)