Dylan Williams, 8, died after being hit in the head with a baseball gamegamegameduring practice.(Photo: Williams family photo via The Indianapolis Star)
INDIANAPOLIS — The death this workweekof an 8-year-old Union City, Ind., boy hit by a baseball during an all-star game practice has left a small partnershipin stunned grief.
Dylan Williams was hit in the head by a ball Tuesday and brought to Riley Hospital for Children, where he died Wednesday after his family opted to look athim taken off life support.
Union City Mayor Bryan Conklin had to incumbranceto compose himself several times as he talked more or lessDylan's death on Thursday.
"It's probably one of the saddest things I've ever heard," Conklin sayin a telephone interview. His voice cracked, he stopped, thuslyapologized.
He has two children himself, the mayor said, and they're older, but he was imagining the pain of Dylan's parents.
"For a kid to be playing something he likes to do, and then ... it's barely... heart-breaking."
Union City, intimately95 miles northeast of Indianapolis, has a population of near5,000, Conklin said, and many of them areconnected. He used to work with Dylan's grandfather, some othercity employee worked for a grandmother and "everybody just knows everybody," Conklin said.
Discussions were beginning about when and how the city might hold a remembrance or memorial event for Dylan, but nothing was firm, the mayor said.
Michael Fulk, baseball all-star coordinator with the Union City Baseball Boosters, verbalizeno decisions had been doabout play for the rest of the season, either. The teams were scheduled for a tournamentthis weekend, but things arup in the air, he said.
Counselors are being made available for children and their families, he said.
An autopsythoriumby the Marion County Coroner's office showed Dylan died of "complications of blunt force trauma" to the right typefaceof his head and neck.
Dylan's father, Erick Williams, was coaching at the time and saw his countersignget hit, he told Dayton, Ohio, television station WHIO-TV.
"He was playing first base and they went to throw a ball to him and he wasn'treallylooking, and to me it looked like it hit him in the side of the neck and he just dropped to the ground," Williams told the television station.
The Indianapolis Star left a message for the family for possible additional comment, but did not breakback from them.
Union City Police Chief Colbie Wells said information about the incident was limited, and police still are investigating.
Generally, youth baseball is considered a safe sport, but in that respectis limited data.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, a USA Baseball field of operationsof players from T-ball jump onto college set up39 deaths among 82.6 million participants between 1989 and 2006.
The newspaper, in a story last year after a 12-year-old died after being injured by a baseball while playing catch with a teammate, also cited a study by an emeritus professor of exercise and sports cognitionat the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He found an annual average of 29,038 injuries among the 1.7 million participants, for an injury rate of 1.69 per 1,000 participants.
After the correspondingincident, The Chicago Tribune, while cautioning that no comprehensive account of injuries exists, cited a limited study commissioned by USA Baseball. That canvassshowed that between 1989 to 2010, 18 children younger than high school age died of baseball injuries.
Diana Penner and Jill Disis write for The Indianapolis Star, a Gannett affiliate.
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Materials taken from USA Today
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