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Bryce Florie pleads with pitchers to protect themselves and wear headgear

It doesn't take another pitcher going down after a shot to the head to evoke his brutal memory of 16 years ago this week at Fenway Park.

What happened to Bryce Florie that day, Sept. 8, 2000, has been on his mind every day since.

But when the Angels' Matt Shoemaker took a line drive off the right side of his head on Sunday, suffered a skull fracture and needed surgery for a subdural hematoma, Florie said the episode affected him more than other such episodes he has been seeing with increased frequency.