Brian O’Nora said Sunday he suffered a concussion after Jarred Kelenic’s foul ball struck him in the left side of the jaw during the Cubs-White Sox game Saturday night at Rate Field. The hit dropped the veteran umpire to a knee before he was taken out of the game and replaced behind the plate.
O’Nora said he did not remember anything until he got up. He said he had bad headaches and the left side of his jaw was very sore after the fourth-inning play, and he called it the best shot he has taken in the face in 34 years on the job.
The White Sox went on to win 8-3, but the game finished with the umpiring crew down a man after O’Nora was examined by Sox trainers and removed. Erich Bacchus stepped in behind the plate, and the umpires completed the night with a three-man crew.
O’Nora has been umpiring in the major leagues since 1992, and the injury came on a night when the Cubs Sox game was already moving toward a lopsided finish. The force of Kelenic’s foul ball made the collision immediate and unmistakable, turning a routine plate assignment into a concussion case that now sends O’Nora out of the ballpark and into treatment.
Triple-A umpire John Bacon joined the crew for Sunday’s game as a designated call-up umpire. O’Nora said he planned to go home later Sunday and then fly to Arizona for treatment at the Sports Concussion Center at Banner-University Phoenix, and he said he would not return to the field until he was cleared. That leaves the next step clear: recovery first, and the plate only after doctors sign off.
