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“I left my last game on a stretcher, and that’s not how anyone wants to go out,” said John Nathans, who has not played baseball since Aug. 14, 2007.

enlarge The Associated Press

John Nathans, right, is still feeling effects from a blow to the head suffered when Jose Offerman, center, attacked Matt Beech.

 

 

 

PORTLAND — He loves baseball and lives a half-mile from Hadlock Field. But John Nathans cannot bring himself to go to a Sea Dogs game.

"I haven't been able to," he said. "I think I'd like to ..."

Nathans' voice trailed off as he spoke in his Portland apartment, his fiancee Kate Lawrence sitting beside him. He managed a smile, but his quiet eyes conveyed the loss.

Nathans, 29, once played for the Portland Sea Dogs, a catcher who recorded one of the gutsiest performances in franchise history. But he is out of the game now, and it hurts.

Nathans did not quit. He did not get released. He was hit in the head with a baseball bat.

"I left my last game on a stretcher, and that's not how anyone wants to go out," Nathans said.

Nathan's last game was Aug. 14, 2007, while catching for the Bridgeport (Conn.) Bluefish in the independent Atlantic League. Bridgeport pitcher Matt Beech threw an inside pitch to former major leaguer Jose Offerman, playing for the Long Island Ducks.

The ball hit Offerman and he bolted toward the mound, still holding the bat.

"The guy had a bat in his hand and was obviously trying to do serious damage," Nathans said. "There wasn't any time to think. My only thought was that I had to stop him."

Nathans intervened. But as Offerman swung at Beech, the bat struck Nathans in the head.

Originally diagnosed with a concussion, Nathan's injury has turned out to be far worse. He suffers from continual headaches, inner-ear damage, including the loss of most of the hearing in his right ear, and a diagnosis known as "vestibular dysfunction," which gives him problems with balance.

Nathans cannot move suddenly without the risk of losing his balance and intensifying his headaches. Simple things like turning his head, looking up or down, or closing his eyes can cause pain or imbalance.

Offerman was arrested after the game on two counts of felony assault (Beech had his finger broken). Two months later, Bridgeport Superior Court Judge James Ginocchio granted Offerman a special form of probation for two years. He was ordered to get anger management treatment and pay the medical expenses of Nathans and Beech. The assault charges will be erased from his record this October if Offerman stays out of trouble.

At the time, Assistant State's Attorney Brian Kennedy complained that the punishment was too light, saying, "Mr. Nathans' season ended with that game and he is still suffering from his injury, a significant injury."

LAWSUIT FILED

Last month, 17 months after the incident, Nathans filed a $4.8 million lawsuit against Offerman, "for the loss of his baseball career ... and ongoing medical problems he will face for the rest of his life," according to a statement released by Nathan's attorney.

"We were hopeful that there would be some improvement in John's condition," said attorney Josh Koskoff of Connecticut. "But the symptoms have persisted and the doctors have indicated that John's condition is permanent."

Offerman's attorney, Frank Riccio II of Bridgeport, has seen the lawsuit but has yet to speak with Offerman.

"I can say that, like in the criminal case, there are factual differences to Mr. Nathans' claim and what actually happened," Riccio said.

During the criminal case, Riccio reportedly disputed that Offerman struck Nathans with the bat, and questioned if Nathans' injury occurred in the benches-clearing brawl that followed the incident.

"Did what happen cause $4.8 million in damages?" Riccio said Friday. "We need to look at, one, if (Nathans) is owed that money, and, two, if that is a fair and reasonable sum."

Nathans said he was "extremely disappointed" at the light sentence given to Offerman.

"This is where the civil system comes in," Koskoff said, "to make Offerman responsible for what he did to John, and to compensate John.

"Who knows?...