Wrigley Field Scoreboard Tile Hits Teen Wearing Bucket On Head

CHICAGO, IL — Look up ways to prevent head injuries in any responsible medical textbook, and you'll be hard-pressed finding "wear a bucket" as a legitimate suggestion. In fact, it's a good bet that most reputable — and even a handful of disreputable — health professionals frown on substituting a bucket for proper protective headgear.

But that bit of conventional wisdom could be changing after a fortunate turn of events at one of the premiere centers of medical research in the world: Wrigley Field.

A 19-year-old man was hit in the head by a footlong metal scoreboard tile during Tuesday night's game between the Chicago Cubs and the Arizona Diamondbacks at the Friendly Confines. While the teen wasn't able to dodge the tile, he was able to avoid serious injury thanks to the plastic bucket he was wearing over his head, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The accident happened just before 9 p.m. Tuesday, July 24, when a tile fell from the ballpark's centerfield scoreboard, which is manually operated, the report stated. Although the bucket provided some protection from the falling tile, the man was taken to Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where he received five staples for a cut to his head.

A Cubs spokesman told the Tribune that the team is still trying to determine what caused the tile to fall.

More via the Chicago Tribune

Wrigley Field's manual scoreboard (Photo by David Banks | Getty Images)