A Tale Of Two Bats

Cliff Notes version: It's the person, not the tool.

Man Charged With Hitting Man With Baseball Bat

KINGSTON, N.H. -- Police have arrested a New Hampshire man they said broke a baseball bat over the head of another man after arguing about a woman.

Tony Eaton, 24, of Hampstead, has been charged with first-degree assault.

Police Chief Donald Briggs said Gavin Pavstin, 23, was hit so hard that the wooden baseball bat snapped in half the second time he was hit.

Ouch.

Pavstin was taken to Exeter Hospital and treated for his wounds.

If convicted, Eaton could face up to 15 years in prison.

Compare and contrast that story to this story out of Leominster, Massachusetts. Yes, that Massachusetts.

Leominster man fends off intruder with bat, police say

LEOMINSTER -- Said Salles, 61, said he knew what he had do when he realized a man was breaking into his Franklin Street home Sunday morning.

"My wife was home, she is sick, I have an obligation," Salles said Monday.

Obligation fulfilled.

Salles stayed quite when he heard the person knocking on the door and then saw someone look into the apartment through one of the front windows. A few minutes later he heard the sound of breaking glass coming from the kitchen.

Salles grabbed one of his grandson's baseball bats and crept into the kitchen, where he saw a man matching Hernandez's description stick his head in through the window.

"He put his head in the window and I hit him on the head," Salles said. "There was a lot of blood."

That's gonna leave a mark.

On the floor, on the window sill, on the curtains...

Hernandez then told [Officer Carlos] Cintron he slipped in Dixon's South Cotton Street apartment and hit his head on her coffee table and required medical attention.

Try again, asshole.

Hernandez told Judge John Curran a different story in Leominster District Court on Monday.

Speaking through an interpreter, Hernandez claimed police officers punched him after his arrest, causing the head wound. Hernandez required 13 staples to close the wound, he said in court.

Keep trying, you worthless piece of shit.

Curran ordered Hernandez held on $5,000 cash bail and then revoked his bail in three other open cases, including a larceny case, a receiving stolen property case and a possession of a Class E drug case.

This guy better be careful. He's almost a third of the way to facing Massachusetts' tough new 15-strikes law. If he gets there, he might actually see the inside of a prison cell.