Ex-MLB pitcher details terrifying 25-foot fall

Posted by Ryan Gaydos | 4 hours ago | Fox News, Sport | Views: 8

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

Ben McDonald, the Baltimore Orioles’ No. 1 overall pick of the 1989 MLB Draft, revealed in a social media post on Friday he suffered serious injuries after he fell 25 feet from a deer stand.

McDonald posted a video of himself in a hospital bed as he tried to put the pieces together on what led to his fall.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM

Baltimore Orioles pitcher Ben McDonald during the 1990 spring training season. (USA Today Sports)

“This is what a severe concussion looks like and sounds like (I still don’t remember anything) Apparently I fell out of a deer stand 25 feet up yesterday morning,” he wrote on X.

“I’m fine and appreciate everyone checking on me. Very lucky…. concussion and 2 cracked vertebra’s…. I’ll be back in #Birdland soon calling Orioles games. Thank you all for all (your) thoughts and (prayers) and thank you to the doctors. See yall soon.”

McDonald is an avid hunter and expressed as much in a social media post in December.

At the time, he wrote that he was hunting when he began to think about his dad. Suddenly, a giant buck approached him, and he was able to bag him.

“I normally don’t share too many of my thoughts on social but this is too good not to share. I lost my dad in January… sitting in a bowstand yesterday enjoying hunting season without him for the first time gave me a chance to reflect on all the hours we spent together on ball fields, basketball courts, and in the deer woods,” McDonald wrote. “I was having a conversation with him telling him how much I miss him and thanking him for everything he did for us and our family and the many sacrifices he made.

MLB BROADCASTER CRACKS CHRIS MARTIN JOKE AMID COLDPLAY ‘KISS CAM’ DRAMA THAT LED TO CEO’S RESIGNATION

Baltimore Orioles’ Ben McDonald pitches against the Chicago White Sox during the 1993 season at Comiskey Park. (USA Today Sports)

“I had a good cry as I wish he was still here for one more hunting season or just to have one more talk…. 5 minutes after I dried my eyes and focused back on the hunt…. out walked an absolute giant…. this buck could have gone anywhere in the 6 acre plot but followed a doe to 24 yards under my tree…. the shot was true as he bounded out in the middle of the plot and tipped over in seconds!

“No doubt this was divine intervention courtesy of the man upstairs and #PawPaw…. the great outdoors is home for me… it’s where I’m probably most comfortable! It’s not always about the harvest it’s about making memories! This buck will always be know as #PawPaw’s Buck!”

McDonald was a star pitcher at LSU before the Orioles selected him No. 1 overall in 1989. He became a fairly serviceable pitcher in his prime.

He had a 3.91 ERA with 894 strikeouts in 211 appearances. He spent the final two seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers. The final season of his career was in 1997.