LAS VEGAS – For Nick King, following flying projectiles is part of the job.
He’s a Vegas local and freelance camera operator who was hired to man one of the center-field cameras for this week’s Brewers-A’s series at Las Vegas Ballpark, the first Major League games in Sin City since the A’s played their first six games of the 1996 season at Cashman Field.
It was King and the large camera he was working from a lift behind the batter’s eye that were struck by Brewers outfielder Jackson Chourio’s third-inning home run in Wednesday’s series finale. It hit the camera hard enough to break off a handle and send debris falling to the ground, but didn’t impact the broadcast other than to provide a fun talking point.
“It’s not a big deal,” King said between innings. “It just caught me off-guard.”
He’s followed the ball or puck while working professional baseball, the NHL, NBA and WNBA over the years, and being struck by Chourio’s homer wasn’t the worst thing that’s happened to him on the job. King’s foot was once run over by AJ Allmendinger’s race car while King worked a NASCAR event in 2017 or ‘18.
Fittingly for what transpired Wednesday, Allmendinger’s nickname is “The Dinger.”
King obviously saw Chourio’s home run coming and thought it would fall short. But if we’ve learned anything about this ballpark over the past three days, it’s that the ball flies.
And there were parts of seven innings still to go.
“I have to go back to work now,” King said.
The A’s were coming to bat in the bottom of the third inning, and it was time to focus on the baseball.