A Loudoun County man died Saturday after a freak accident on the softball diamond.
Well-known custom home builder George Crisp, 55, was pitching in adult softball game when a ball was batted back at him.
"George pitched the ball, the guy hit a line drive toward him, he turned his head to avoid it -- just like you would, tried to put his glove up," said Crisp's friend David Pittman, a pastor at Temple Baptist Church in Herndon, Va. "Didn’t get his glove up in time and it hit him right here, right underneath the ear."
The line drive hit Crisp in the throat, just below his jaw, rupturing his carotid artery. Blood flooded his brain in seconds. Crisp, a father of six, died a few hours later in a local hospital.
"It happened so quickly," Pittman said. "In just one 12-hour period and he’s gone from being the life of the party to being in home in heaven."
Crisp actually talked about dying on the softball field, according to his son-in-law, George Kall. He thought it would be ideal to have it happen when you're "doing something you love," recalls Kall.
Crisp is most being remembered for his humanitarian work and sense of humor.
"He’d get everybody laughing," Pittman said. "There were times I would say, 'George, stop. I can’t breathe,' everybody was just holding their sides. He had that knack. Some people try to be funny. George didn’t try, he just was funny."
A longtime member of Temple Baptist, Crisp went on a church mission to Papua New Guinea in January. He and his fellow missionaries also built churches, clinics and orphanages in places like Uganda, Brazil, Mexico and Japan
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"I almost had people pass out yesterday when I told them that George had died," Pittman said. "He was so fun loving that, well I can tell you this, planning for the funeral, we plan for hundreds to come."
