Rainiers pitcher who was hit in face sees line drive as ‘test’

It feels awkward and almost forbidden to look directly at Steven Shell when he’s talking. There’s some shame in it.

And yet, you can’t help but stare with a mixture of wonder and empathy at what a baseball 2.87 to 2.94 inches in diameter can do if it strikes the human body.

On one side of Shell’s face, he’s a young, good-looking kid with dark eyes and the complexion of a summer spent in the sun. But the entire right side of his face, starting almost at his nose and moving toward his ear, is a swollen mess of purple, green and black. His cheek is bloated to the point it pulls on his lips and permanently squints his eye, with a shiner under it.

It looks like something created by a Hollywood makeup artist for a movie, not the product of a rare occurrence on a baseball field with odds similar to being struck by lightning.

“I look pretty rough,” the easygoing Shell said with a laugh, trying to smile and only having one side of his face show the emotion. “It’s actually getting a little better.”

It’s hard to imagine it being worse.

One week ago, on July 26, a brilliant sunshine-filled Sunday for baseball at Cheney Stadium, Shell was on the mound for the Tacoma Rainiers. He was pitching, working, fighting and hoping for an opportunity to return to the big leagues – a place he’d been just three months before with the Washington Nationals.

“This year has just been a mess for everything,” he said.

Shell was designated for assignment by the Nats on April 29 and refused a Triple-A assignment, instead becoming a free agent. He signed a minor league deal with the Mariners and has bounced between relieving and starting since joining the organization, posting a 3-3 record with a 6.98 ERA in 17 appearances, including five starts.

But nothing in his experience compared to what happened in the seventh inning that afternoon against the Las Vegas 51s.

With one out and two strikes on Las Vegas outfielder Buck Coats, Shell fired a fastball looking for a swing and a miss or an easy ground ball. Instead, Coats connected with the ball and it rocketed toward the mound at well over 100 mph.

There was little Shell could do; the ball struck him on his right cheek and knocked him to the ground.

“I don’t really remember getting hit,” Shell said. “I remember laying on the ground trying to get up, cause I didn’t know what happened, and trying to find the ball. I don’t remember him hitting the ball or anything. I spit and blood came out and I knew it was serious.”

Everyone in the park knew it was serious, too. Manager Daren Brown and trainers Tom Newberg and B.J. Downie ran to the mound. Shell was conscious and remembers people telling him to lie still as he was loaded on the stretcher.

“The weird thing is, I didn’t feel any pain,” Shell said. “I guess it all happened so fast.”

But the pain was being felt 2,000 miles away in Oklahoma City, where Shell’s wife Kenna held their 2-month-old son, Tyler, and couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“We were listening to the game on the computer,” said Kenna. “I heard the play-by-play guy say Steven Shell was just hit in the head. Everything just stopped.”

Kenna stopped feeding Tyler and began saying silent prayers for her husband’s safety while hanging on every word of Rainiers radio announcer Mike Curto’s broadcast.

“When he said they were bringing out the stretcher, I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, this is serious,’” she said.

Kenna didn’t panic, but she felt helpless, not having phone numbers for anyone affiliated with the Rainiers or Cheney Stadium. She did the next best thing and called Steven’s agent and told him what happened.

“When (Curto) said that Steven waved to the fans as they took him off the field, I felt a little better,” she said.

A few minutes later, her fears were further assuaged as Steven called from the ambulance to tell her he’d been hit in the face.

After he hung up the phone, the reality of the moment set in.

“I was thinking in the ambulance that I could have been killed right then,” he said. “You know? If I got hit in the temple or anything like that, it could’ve been over for me.”

After a battery of tests, X-rays and scans, it was determined that Shell only suffered a small fracture of the sinus. No other broken bones, just lots of swelling.

“The doctors said I had all the trauma and none of the broken bones,” Shell said. “I think God was looking out for me. If it had been a little higher or a little lower, it would have broke my whole face. I’m pretty lucky.”

But seeing Shell’s face, he doesn’t seem lucky. He sleeps with his head elevated because of the draining. He needs painkillers or it becomes unbearable.

And of course, there are the stares. Everyone stares.

But Shell is upbeat. He’s keeping the ball as a keepsake.

“The ball from my first big league win, the ball from my first big league save and this one,” he said, laughing at the thought.

He reassured Coats, who was reportedly very shaken up by the incident.

“It’s just a freak accident,” Shell said – and it may help him freak out less about baseball, and remember his true priorities.

Shell has 31/2 weeks to recover and get the swelling down before he can throw again. He says he won’t be scared to take the mound again.

“You’re put through certain stuff in life, it’s all a test,” he said. “Basically, 80 percent of your life is how you react to what happens. Something good is going to happen out of everything. Something good will happen out of this.”

Ryan Divish: 253-597-8483

ryan.divish@thenewstribune.com