Hero fan saves son from getting clobbered in face by flying baseball bat

A quick-thinking Pittsburgh Pirates fan is being called a hero for saving his son from being hit in the face by a flying baseball bat.

This happened Saturday in Florida at a spring training game against the Atlanta Braves.

Pirates outfielder Danny Ortiz was the one who lost his grip on that swing, sending the bat flying into the stands.

“I went home and my wife said to me, ‘You almost killed that kid!'” Ortiz said, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Photos taken by a Tribune-Review photographer show just how close of a call it really was. The fan's arm stretches out just in time to block the bat from clobbering the kid in the face.

Other fans in the area duck for cover and flinched too.

WFTV reported that the man was a Florida paramedic named Shaun Cunningham, and the boy was his son Landon.

"Realizing it was coming for us and specifically him, and really all I could do was throw my arm in the way,” Cunningham said.