The Final 9

By Barry M. Bloom / MLB.com

Don Long has unwittingly become the face of Major League Baseball's exploding maple bat controversy.
Literally.

The hitting coach of the Pittsburgh Pirates was in the visitor's dugout on the first base side of Dodger Stadium this past April 15 when Nate McLouth led off the eighth inning of an 11-2 loss with a double. Long followed the ball into right field and didn't see a piece of McLouth's bat hurtling toward him.

"I felt something hit me," Long recently told MLB.com. "It was surprising."

The large splinter struck below the left eye, leaving a bloody gash in his cheek that needed 10 stitches to close. For a month, Long said he lost feeling near the left corner of his mouth and the ability to smile on that side. He also said that for a while he felt like he was "shaving a piece of rubber."

But the sensitivity is starting to return and doctors expect him to make a full recovery.

"Now I can actually feel what I'm doing," he said.

MLB addressing danger of maple bats....