Cubs' Bryant on hit to head: 'I needed to take it seriously'
Give Kris Bryant credit for listening to the team doctor and for paying attention to what his body was telling him.
And give him credit for not giving into the primitive nonsense that says, "You gotta play hurt."
No, you don't.
After careful consideration, Bryant returned to the Cubs lineup Saturday after missing all of four games and most of last Sunday's, when he was hit on the batting helmet by a pitch from the Colorado Rockies' German Marquez at Coors Field.
"It could have been a lot worse," Bryant said Saturday morning after taking some grounders. "I'm feeling pretty thankful that I was only out four games."
Bryant said he didn't wish to discuss symptoms or medical conditions. The Cubs this past week said he passed the concussion protocol, but Bryant didn't return until he was ready.
"I wasn't medically cleared by our team doctors," he said. "That's what it was. I think in those type of situations you have to wait until the experts say you can get out there.
"I was taking it easy. I realize that, especially nowadays, you see with the football players, they take this stuff seriously. I needed to take it seriously and not try to go out there and be Mr. Tough Man and play, and you get hit again and you never know what happens. I thought our training staff and our doctors handled it really well. As frustrating as it can be - you feel you can get out there and play - it's really the smart thing to do."
Bryant talked about missing a few games with the view that he has thousands more to play.
Give this 26-year-old all the credit in the world for using his head the right way and taking the long view.
"It was our team doctor making sure I get to see my kids grow up and stuff like that, because anytime you're talking (about) your brain, a lot can go wrong if it happens again," he said.
Bryant has been hit with 7 pitches this year, 1 more than teammate Anthony Rizzo, whose body seems to attract baseballs year in and year out. He termed the pitch from Marquez "just one I couldn't get out of the way of."
Hitting a baseball thrown by a major-league pitcher has been called one of the hardest things to do in sports. Getting out of the way of one is right up there with it.
"Anytime someone throws 97 miles an hour, that's milliseconds in terms of reaction time," Bryant said. "It's pretty impressive that we're actually able to hit that ball."
Bryant wasn't without a sense of humor about the whole thing. When asked if he felt woozy for a while after being hit, he said: "Honestly, after all of it, I thought I would feel a lot worse but after the game, I felt super sharp. I am a smart kid. It could have been a lot worse. I was just thankful that I was able to joke around after the game and feel like my normal self a little bit."
He also said he was heartened that Marquez made an effort to contact him afterward and apologize, a move helped out by Rockies star Carlos Gonzalez because Marquez's English might be limited.
Bryant was back on the field a short time later, wearing a C-flap, which is attached to his batting helmet.
He received a nice hand from the crowd of 40,147. In the Cubs' 3-0 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers, he went 0-for-3 with a walk.
He gets applause here for using his head the right way this past week.
"Some things kind of catch your attention," he said. "This certainly did. It kind of puts things into perspective a little bit just because we're always out there, and everybody wants to get hits and RBIs and home runs and feel great about themselves. When something like that happens, you've got to take a step back and realize that this game can be taken from you really quick and really soon and unexpectedly. It's really important to enjoy the game as much as you can while you can."
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