Philadelphia Phillies Fan Hit In Face With Hot Dog Shot From Cannon

When you go to a baseball game - just like with cricket - you have to keep an eye out for balls flying into the crowd. Those things are heavy and if they hit you in the face, they could do some serious damage.

What you're probably not on the lookout for are flying hot dogs fired from an oversized cannon. That's what hit Philadelphia Phillies fan Kathy McVay square in the face, leaving her bloodied and bruised at the game on Monday night.

Ms McVay was sitting behind the home plate and watching Phillies play the St Louis Cardinals at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia when the Phillies' mascot, Phillie Phanatic, began riding around the field in his mobile hot dog launcher.

In one of his usual hometown game rituals, Phillie Phanatic, wearing a white chef's hat and apron, rides a small utility vehicle and fires hotdogs wrapped in duct tape at the crowd.

ABC

Unable to swat the meaty missile away because of a shoulder injury that needs surgery, Ms McVay said that the sausage hit 'her like a ton of bricks', knocking off her glasses.

So forceful was the shot that she went to the hospital for a scan of her brain to ensure she didn't suffer a concussion.

Speaking to 6 ABC, she said recounted what happened. "The next thing I know he shot it in our direction, and bam. It hit me like a ton of bricks. My glasses flew.

"It just came out of nowhere. And hard."

Ms McVay suffered a haemotoma in one of her eyes as well as swelling and bruising to the side of her face.

PA

Amazingly, she isn't planning to sue the club, and has insisted she will return to the stadium to watch her team play again. But she has warned people to be on the lookout for unexpected flying objects and offered them some advice.

"Just to be aware, because you never know," she said. "I understand a baseball, but not a hotdog."

The Phillies have apologised to Ms McVay and offered her free tickets to a future game. We think she should probably be given season tickets, but that's just us.

The man who dresses up as the mascot reportedly feels 'terrible' about the incident.

Topics: SPORT, Baseball, sports fails, injury

Mischa Pearlmen

Mischa is a freelance journalist usually based in either New York or London. He has written for Kerrang!, Record Collector, NME, the New York Observer and FLOOD magazine, among others. Contact him at [email protected]