Major Leaguers Freaked Out By Thunder And Lightning [VIDEO]

In a frantic scene that was soon the subject of laughter, a quick lightning strike and an enormous boom of thunder sent players and umpires scrambling for the dugout in the Texas Rangers vs. the Minnesota Twins game this past Sunday, reports ESPN.

During the fourth inning of the scoreless game, Rangers pitcher Roy Oswalt was preparing to deliver a pitch to Ryan Doumit when a blinding flash of lightning lit up the sky. The lightning was quickly following by a sonic boom that brought Twins player Josh Willingham to his knees and people all over darting for the exits.

“That was the loudest thunder I’ve ever heard in my life,” said Rangers first baseman Michael Young.

“(Twins base runner Josh) Willingham hit the deck. I turned around and he was doing a dirt angel on the floor. Their first base coach (Jerry White) was going bananas and hid behind the umpire.”

Rangers catcher Mike Napoli instinctively began sprinting for the dugout, leaving the playing field without even thinking about it.

“I don’t know really what I was doing,” Napoli said.

“It just kind of freaked me out so I just started running to the dugout and went for cover, but I don’t think that helped anything. It was so quick and you see the flash and the bang and, I don’t know, I just started running for some odd reason to the dugout.”

According to MSN, the game entered a lengthy rain delay that allowed players from both sides to watch the replay of the incident, provoking laughter each time they saw player reactions from a different angle.

“We watched the video probably about 40 times, just watching everybody on the field, and every time we watched it we cracked up laughing,” said Napoli.

The game finally ended after 13 innings with the Rangers winning by a score of 4-3, sending both teams into the All-Star break with quite a memorable first half.