Pedro Alvarez foul ball destroys writer's laptop

It's every baseball writer's worst nightmare come to life.

Baltimore Orioles designated hitter Pedro Alvarez smashed a foul ball into the Camden Yards press box late in Friday's game, and it destroyed the laptop of Baltimore Sun reporter Eduardo Encina - who happened to be finishing his game story at that very moment.

Encina's been here before, apparently. Last August, then-Orioles outfielder Gerardo Parra dinged Encina's trusty computer with a foul ball that, unlike Alvarez's shot on Friday, only left a small dent.

Not only did Encina miss his deadline, but he undoubtedly lost tons of important data, and also has to buy a new laptop. Perhaps Alvarez, who apologized to the reporter before Saturday's game, will be kind enough to take care of the bill.

Or, at the very least, he could offer to autograph the baseball that killed the computer.