The Cubs were closing in on a postseason berth when Alex Bregman went down in a moment that looked far too familiar to Cardinals fans. Bregman, Chicago’s starting third baseman, took a foul ball near the left eye while standing in the on-deck circle, and the sight instantly brought back an old Cardinals wound.
That wound belongs to Juan Encarnación.
Encarnación opened 2007 as St. Louis’ starting right fielder and was hitting .283 with a .769 OPS on Aug. 31 when disaster struck.
While taking practice swings and waiting for his turn at the plate, he was hit near the left eye by a foul ball off Aaron Miles. The impact shattered his orbital bone, fractured the eye socket in several places and left him with a concussion.
At the time, Cardinals medical director George Paletta called it "the worst trauma I've ever seen," and the damage was severe enough to end Encarnación’s career. He lost a significant amount of vision in his left eye and never played baseball again.
For Cardinals fans, that injury still sits among the painful reminders that came with those otherwise exciting 2000s and 2010s teams. The organization also endured the deaths of highly touted prospect Oscar Taveras, starting pitcher Darryl Kile and reliever Josh Hancock. In Taveras’ case, the loss may have helped speed up the franchise’s decline.
There was also Rick Ankiel, whose pitching career was derailed by a sudden loss of control before he later reinvented himself as a solid outfielder with a cannon arm. Encarnación’s injury came while Ankiel’s comeback was nudging him out of the starting job.
Bregman’s status was still unclear as of this writing. One detail that may offer some relief is that the ball bounced before hitting him, which likely meant it didn’t come in with the same force that struck Encarnación 19 years ago.
Still, even if Bregman only misses a few games, the moment should ring a bell for anyone in St. Louis who remembers how quickly a baseball incident can turn serious.
And that’s the bigger point here. Baseball can get petty, loud and tribal, but sometimes it asks for something simpler.
Cardinals fans know what that fear feels like. They’ve lived it before.
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