Buzz
Can you list various types of balls? How many of them have caused fatalities?
It's well-known that sports can be hazardous, especially for the athletes who compete. There are certainly stories of players who lost their lives while playing their favorite sport, from football and boxing to racing and Olympic luge. Even those simply exercising can suffer serious injuries. But what happens when the equipment they use turns deadly?
This list explores ten peculiar deaths that were caused by balls involved in different sports, whether through accidental or more sinister circumstances.
10. Fatality by Baseball
Linda Goldbloom was watching the ninth inning of a baseball game at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles when a foul ball hit her. A San Diego Padres batter swung at a 150-kilometer-per-hour (93-mile-per-hour) pitch, sending the ball over the protective netting behind home plate and striking the 79-year-old woman in the head. According to the coroner’s report, Goldbloom passed away four days later from head trauma. Every season, approximately 1,750 fans are hit by foul balls, but Goldbloom’s death was the first in almost 50 years. While many injuries are severe, only two other fatalities by foul balls—one in 1943 and another in 1970—have been recorded.
Due to the “Baseball Rule,” Major League Baseball teams cannot be held responsible for injuries caused to spectators. As long as the team provides some form of protected seating in areas where foul balls are most likely to cause harm (like the netting behind home plate), they are considered to have met the standard of reasonable care. Most MLB tickets also come with a disclaimer stating that fans sitting outside the protected zone do so at their own risk.
9. Death by Exercise Ball
Baba Yanyan was in her stroller on the street when a metal ball, used for hand and wrist exercises, fell from an apartment building eight stories above and struck her in the head. Yanyan died hours later in the hospital.
Police were unable to determine who owned the metal ball despite conducting a door-to-door investigation of the 121 households in the apartment building. Without compensation for the criminal matter, the child’s family pursued legal action. The building’s residents were ordered to contribute a “gift” as compensation. Falling objects from apartment buildings continue to be a persistent issue in China.
8. Death by Cue Ball
In 1989, a 23-year-old painter became known as “Death Wish” due to his constant reckless behavior. He would smash tumblers on his face, cut his wrists with sharp objects, and even swallow items like keys and glass. Local authorities described him as being in good physical health but lacking intelligence.
One of his favorite stunts involved swallowing and later regurgitating a pool ball. His friends had witnessed this act numerous times and paid little attention when Death Wish attempted it once more after a night of heavy drinking. However, this time, something went terribly wrong.
Death Wish stumbled out of the pub, collapsed on the street, and turned blue. His friends managed to grab the ball, but they couldn’t remove it. Paramedics arrived and tried to insert an airway tube, but it was too late. The cue ball blocked his throat, preventing intubation. Just fifteen minutes after swallowing the ball, the young man was dead.
An autopsy revealed that the white cue ball was firmly lodged in his throat. The official cause of death was “suffocation due to a foreign object obstructing the throat.”
Each time Death Wish performed his trick, he would swallow a colored pool ball, which measured 5.03 cm (2 inches) in diameter. But on that tragic night, he swallowed the white cue ball, which, although just slightly smaller at 4.75 cm (1.87 inches) in diameter, was far smaller in volume—making it the perfect size to become lodged in his throat.
7. Death by Bowling Ball
Over 30 police officers scoured the Fort Worth, Texas, area in search of 5-year-old Sida Osman, who had vanished while playing outside his apartment building. His body, severely beaten, was found the following day in an abandoned lot.
A 14-year-old boy confessed to attacking Sida with a bowling ball because he found him “annoying.” Prosecutors revealed that the teen hit the boy several times before straddling him to deliver a final blow, similar to “spiking a football.” Afterward, the murderer wiped his fingerprints off the ball and discarded it in a nearby yard. While Sida’s family searched desperately for him, the teen allegedly returned to the scene with friends to show them what he had done.
Unfortunately, the killer was not tried as an adult. During a detention hearing, he tearfully confessed in exchange for a plea deal and was sentenced to 23 years in prison. He would spend the first two years in a juvenile detention facility, with the remaining time in a state prison.
The Osman family fled the violence in Somalia and sought refuge in the United States, hoping for a safer life.
6. Death by Tennis Ball
Sweden’s Stefan Edberg, a two-time Australian Open winner (1985, 1987), Wimbledon champion (1988, 1990), and U.S. Open victor (1991, 1992), was on the fast track to tennis greatness. However, before he became one of the sport’s top players, Edberg served a fatal ball on the court that almost derailed his career.
During the 1983 Boy’s Single Final at the U.S. Open, 17-year-old Edberg served a powerful ball that struck linesman Richard Wertheim. The ball hit Wertheim in the groin, causing him to lose his balance. He fell backward, landing his head on the court.
Wertheim passed away a week later from a subdural hematoma. Though the blow to his head—not the groin injury—was fatal, Edberg was so consumed with guilt that he nearly walked away from tennis. However, he went on to win the 1983 Final and completed a Junior Grand Slam.
Wertheim's family filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Tennis Association for $2.25 million, alleging that the association failed to implement proper safety measures for umpires. The family’s attorney highlighted Edberg’s exceptional skill and speed, pointing out that tennis balls hit by professional players can travel at speeds exceeding 160 kilometers per hour (100 miles per hour).
5. Death by Yoga Ball
Yoga has long been celebrated for its ability to improve physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. However, in a bizarre twist, a yoga ball became the unlikely cause of death for two women.
Khaw Kim-sum, an anesthesiologist and associate professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, is currently serving a life sentence for the murder of his wife, Wong Siew-fing, and 16-year-old daughter, Lily. The 53-year-old from Malaysia reportedly killed them to continue an affair with a student.
Kim-sum filled an inflatable yoga ball with toxic gas and placed it in the trunk of his family’s yellow Mini Cooper. The gas leaked and suffocated Siew-fing and Lily, whose bodies were later discovered in their locked car by the roadside.
The women were declared dead at the very hospital where Kim-sum worked. The postmortem examination revealed carbon monoxide inhalation as the cause of death. During the trial, it came to light that Kim-sum had told others he initially planned to use the gas on rabbits. He had also informed the police that his intention was to use the gas to rid his home of rats. Furthermore, Kim-sum suggested that his daughter might have been aware of the poisonous gas in the ball and could have been trying to take her own life.
4. Death by Racquetball
There was little coverage about a man who died while playing racquetball. While the sport is known for sometimes triggering heart attacks, it wasn’t a heart attack that caused the fatality in this case.
This incident was reported in a South Florida Sun-Sentinel article about unusual deaths. An unnamed man was playing racquetball with his wife. During a return shot, the woman accidentally hit him in the side with the ball. Unaware of the injury, he continued playing, only to collapse shortly afterward and bleed to death.
Ruptures to the spleen typically occur due to a direct impact to the abdomen. The signs—pain and bruising—don’t always show up right away.
3. Death by Soccer (Football) Ball
Allie Brodie, an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Alabama, was struck by tragedy shortly after beginning her college journey. During a student ministry retreat for her Christian sorority, Brodie was accidentally hit in the head while playing soccer, resulting in a severe brain injury.
In the days following the incident, Brodie’s condition worsened. She underwent two emergency surgeries on her brain and spent several weeks in a medically induced coma. Doctors later discovered she had a rare condition from birth: an abnormal network of blood vessels in her brain that diverted blood from healthy tissue. The impact from the soccer ball caused internal bleeding in her brain.
Brodie remained in the coma but tragically passed away due to complications from pneumonia brought on by the injuries.
2. Death by Hurling Ball
Harry Byrne, a 13-year-old student, tragically passed away on the playground at St. Kieran’s College in Ireland. During a lunchtime break, he was struck in the head by a sliotar, a hurling ball. Despite being rushed to the hospital, he could not survive the injury.
Hurling holds deep cultural significance in Ireland, where it’s not unusual to see young boys walking through the streets with hurleys in hand instead of mobile phones. The sliotar, a hard ball used in the game, is about the size of a tennis ball. It features a cork center encased in stitched leather and weighs between 110 and 120 grams (roughly 4 ounces or ⅓ pound).
St. Kieran’s College takes hurling seriously, with students aiming to make the school team and potentially pursue it further. Young Harry Byrne was a skilled player who had earned two under-14 championship medals. The school described his tragic death as a “freak accident” that occurred while the children were simply playing.
1. Death by Cricket Ball
While cricket players wear helmets for protection, they don’t cover every vulnerable spot. During a match between South Australia and New South Wales, 25-year-old Phillip Hughes was hit by a ball in an unprotected area just below his left ear. He collapsed instantly, was rushed to the hospital, underwent surgery, and was placed in an induced coma.
The vertebral artery dissection, which caused a hemorrhage, was classified as a 'sport-related blunt-force cerebrovascular injury.' Hughes passed away two days later, just three days before his 26th birthday. Although improvements were made to the design of cricket helmets, the new guards do not protect the vulnerable neck area where Hughes was struck. A review determined that the incident was entirely accidental and that even the enhanced safety measures would not have prevented it.
+ Death by Golf Ball
In 2021, Australian golfer Rod Gurney tragically lost his life in an unusual accident on the golf course. The 69-year-old was hit in the head by a ball struck by another player. Paramedics attended to him immediately, but he chose not to seek further medical treatment. Over the next few days, his condition deteriorated, and he was hospitalized, where he later passed away.
“Although this death was tragic and sudden,” said his family, “we are heartened to know that he passed doing something he loved.”
