Approaching the four-year anniversary of a cardiac event that under most any other circumstances would have taken his life, Angels radio broadcaster and former major-league pitcher Mark Langston can joke about it.
That is, after all, how baseball players, and former baseball players, usually deal with adversity and frightening situations.
Mr. Langston was on the air just prior to a game at Houston’s Minute Maid Park on Sept. 20, 2019, having just finished delivering the starting lineups, when completely unexpectedly, he collapsed due to ventricular fibrillation. A type of arrhythmia, or irregular heartbeat, the life-threatening condition requires immediate medical attention.
Had Mr. Langston suffered the episode at almost any other time, say while he was alone in a hotel room or even earlier in the day at the ballpark, he almost certainly would not have lived to tell about it. Only the fortuitous presence of Houston Police Department members nearby made the difference….