Happiness Broke This High School Pitcher's Leg

Broken bones are commonplace in sports, but a fracture during an on-field post-game celebration is a little more rare. Yet, that's exactly how Auburn high school pitcher Chris Halliday most likely finished his baseball career.

Halliday tossed the final pitch that clinched the state title, which resulted in the requisite joyful pile-up on the mound. No his bones were not crushed by the weight of his teammates — that occurred soon after he attempted a more personal celebration with his teammate, Kyle Beade. Chest bump success begets leg bone failure. Halliday, who had been ecstatic just a few seconds before it happened, quickly shifted to dude-like astonishment:

"I came out of the pile and was running around with teammates. I was back behind the mound, around second base and I did a chest bump with Kyle. I must have landed wrong when I came down. Right away, I heard a crack. I looked over and said, ‘Kyle, I broke my leg.' He said, ‘No way, dude,' and I just said, ‘Kyle, I broke my leg!' ''

Dude, he broke his leg. That's when things became a bit chaotic, almost ruining Auburn's triumphant victory.

"When they saw it, people started running away, trying not to puke,'' said the pitcher. "My coaches surrounded me and were holding my hand and stuff. My dad and little brother and uncle came onto the field because they thought I'd had a heart attack or something. They were kind of happy it was only a broken leg.''

Halliday was carted off the field on a stretcher and rushed to emergency room for surgery. However, as you can tell in the photo above, he did not let his mangled limb completely ruin the moment for him.

Fractured Fairy Tale [Boston Globe]