That's the Breaks

As a fifteen year old I played baseball for Ashby in the Babe Ruth League. We had a game in New Ipswich, NH and it had been a rainy day. I was playing third base and there was a large puddle in front of third base. Early in the game I was playing third base about 18 feet beyond the base and away from the puddle. There was a runner on base (Rollie Place) and the hitter drove the ball into right field for a single. Rollie was trying to go to third and there wasn't even going to be a play on him. He didn't want to slide into the base (the puddle was there) and therefore he slid into me. His slide snapped by left leg at the ankle with my foot now at a right angle to my leg. As I laid on the field someone had found a country doctor to look at my leg. Two of my teammates had got sick just looking at it. The doctors said he thought it was broke. I remember thinking that the doctor's reply was like duh! for no ones foot and leg could be at right angles without something being wrong. Well, they picked me up and put me in the back of my father's Rambler and off we went to Burbank Hospital in Fitchburg (about a 30 minute trip). Dr. Arons Simon was the doctor who was working on me. I was given a shot of something that numbed me from my hip to my toes. Doctor Simon was trying to snap the bones back into place. He couldn't do it and a second doctors helped him snap it back. The cast went from my hip to my toes. It was the end of the school year and I missed the last few days of school as well as having to do finals. The cast was on for about 8 weeks. I still can feel where the break was even today.