A baseball can be a weapon. It’s harder than you might think. Held in your hand, there is a little give to it. But there’s no give when you’re hit by one, except from your body. It feels like a punch from a tiny hand, like a baby Mike Tyson that’s chosen to hurt you.
The point of impact on a baseball is small. You are not hit at first with the whole diameter of the ball. You are hit first with a piece of it the size of a quarter, which is the part that hurts you the most. Immediately after, it swells. There is a red spot that stings a little. You want to touch it. You tell your friends you think it will bruise, because it throbs, which means that inside something is bleeding. But that center part doesn’t bruise, not at first. The edges, where the injury is the closest to the surface, bruise first: yellow then red then deep purple. A few days later, the center will begin to color in, so that even two weeks later, there is still a mark on you. All of that is if you’re hit somewhere soft (quad, ass, upper arm), and with a baseball thrown 75 mph, max.
