Foul balls and broken bones

Richie Ashburn with the Phillies (Hy Peskin photo)

Richie Ashburn, as he tends to do throughout his Hall of Fame career, fouls off a lot of pitches in a game.

Just trying to stay alive at the plate so he can find another pitch to hit.

During one game in 1954, Ashburn hits 14 foul balls in the same at-bat against Cincinnati Reds right-hander Corky Valentine.

Memorable enough, for sure, but nearly as memorable as the two foul balls Ashburn hits in the same at-bat 68 years ago today during the Phillies’ 3-1 victory over the New York Giants at Philadelphia’s Connie Mack Stadium.

One of those foul balls breaks the nose of a woman named Alice Roth, who is watching the game along the third-base line with her two grandsons, Preston and Tom, who are among the Saturday afternoon crowd of 7,929 in North Philly.

While medics are carrying out Mrs. Roth, another of Ashburn’s foul balls hits Roth, this one fracturing a bone in her knee.

Before she can get hit a third time, medics whisk away Mrs. Roth to nearby Temple University Hospital.

Turns out that Alice Roth is the wife of Earl Roth, then the sports editor of the late, great Philadelphia Bulletin.

Ashburn later brings flowers to Mrs. Roth while she recovers in the hospital.

In the meantime, the Phillies treat the Roth grandkids to free tickets and autographs, reportedly prompting one of the boys to ask, “Grandma, do you think you could go to an Eagles game and get hit in the face with a football?”

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