A CUP CAN only do so much.

With the speed that major league pitchers can throw the ball, a shot to the bean bag can potentially do some serious damage.

A couple of weeks ago Alastair Cook was unfortunate enough to experience a cricket ball into the spuds, and last night it was Billy Burns of the Oakland A’s who found himself suffering every man’s worst nightmare.

Burns decided to swing at a slider which was dropping short in the fourth inning of their meeting with the San Francisco Giants last night, but misread the flight of the ball, fouling it off the underside of his bat.

With his legs spread wide mid-swing, the ball bounced off the dirt and up into his gentleman’s region, to the audible wincing of thousands of people at AT and T Park.

Burns finished his at bat before being replaced, with the official diagnosis given by the club as a “testicular contusion”.

The facial expressions of his teammates as he received attention probably summed it all up.

Nasty.

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