Angels broadcaster Mark Langston stood a few feet outside the Angel Stadium radio booth from which he provided analysis for seven years, discussing nonchalantly on Sunday the medical emergency that put him in a Houston hospital a little more than a week ago. He was healthy and feeling physically normal, he assured. He was happy to be home around the people who meant the most to him.
But as soon as he was asked how he was handling the emotional impact of nearly losing his life because of sudden heart failure, Langston had to pause to collect himself. Tears welled in his eyes as he watched his grandson, who turned 6 on Friday, wander around the booth.
“I’m not gonna lie, life is different,” Langston said before his voice broke. “I’m good but it’s different, it’s definitely different. I have to look at it that way. There’s a reason that I was given extra time. I don’t know what it is but there’s a reason for it.”
Langston, who turned 59 on Aug. 20, had just finished calling the lineups for the Angels’ Sept. 20 game against the Houston Astros when he lost consciousness in the radio booth at Minute Maid Park. He later learned he had suffered from ventricular fibrillation, a condition that essentially weakens the heart and prevents it from pumping blood.
The last thing he could recall after realizing he had been loaded into an ambulance was watching Astros starter Zack Greinke complete his warmup and Angels infielder David Fletcher remove the doughnut from his bat in the on-deck circle.
What unfolded after Langston blacked out shook Terry Smith, his play-by-play partner. Langston was slumped over in his seat when people in the radio booth came to his aid. Technician Jorge Sevilla ran down the hall looking for medics and came back with Houston Police Department commanders Paul Follis and Daryn Edwards, who happened to be in the dining room.
Within 90 seconds, they had moved Langston to the ground and begun administering CPR. Shortly thereafter, medics arrived and attached a defibrillator to Langston. His heart did not start pumping blood until 3 1/2 minutes had passed.
“How this whole thing played out in a positive end for me, they can’t explain,” Langston said. “Every doctor I talk to says you are an absolute miracle because this doesn’t happen.
“It’s unexplainable,” he added. “I always believe in God’s timing. Everything has a purpose and reason. I totally trust that. I trust the way things operate. It was not my time. That’s the only thing I can say.”
Langston returned to Southern California on Saturday. He will spend the offseason on the down-low, waiting for his body to adjust to the defibrillator that was inserted in his chest.
He is confident that no heart problems should arise again. He is a self-described health fanatic, his habits stretching back to when he was an MLB pitcher for 16 years.
“They said I have the heart of a healthy 35-year-old,” Langston said.
“It maybe has an effect on the backside of it where I don’t have any problems but I could have gone to a cardiologist and had every test prior to this and they would not have been able to predict this was right around the corner. It was an unpredictable cardiac [event] that they just cannot figure out what it is or how it happened.”
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