Sportsnet's Rick Ball returning to Flames broadcast after health scare

Rick Ball is heading back to the booth.

Ball, who hasn’t been on a Calgary Flames broadcast since mid-October, will return to the call when the team hosts the Winnipeg Jets at the Saddledome on Saturday after recovering from a pulmonary embolism.

“Doctors figured it was a combination of a broken leg, and then we did some travelling, and two things that can lead to a blood clot are a broken bone and travelling,” Ball detailed to Eric Francis on Sportsnet 960 earlier this month.

“So put the two together and I wound up unconscious on the kitchen floor a couple weeks ago. Thank god my wife was home to call 911. Pretty scary. I can’t tell you how much gratitude I have for whoever was looking after me.”

Ball injured his leg when he stepped in a sprinkler hole “chasing a bird away” at a golf tournament in Kelowna this summer.

He then travelled to Calgary, Vancouver Island, and Arizona.

“And then one day I’m standing in the kitchen thinking [to] myself ‘if it’s like this tomorrow, I’m going to the doctor,’ and the next thing I know, I’m on the floor,” Ball said. “The last thing I remember is thinking, ‘oh shit, I’m going to pass out’ because I’m feeling really faint, and then the next thing I remember is my wife screaming and that kind of woke me up.”

Ball received hundreds of texts and emails from friends, colleagues, and Flames fans wishing him well during his absence.

He’s sure to get more in his first broadcast back.

“The support has been overwhelming,” he said. “It was really uplifting and I can’t tell you how much that meant to me to be able to hear from everybody. It really emphasized how important it is to touch base will people who are going through a problem like that. You might think you are bothering them. You’re not. It really meant a lot to hear from everybody.”

Ball is expected to be on the broadcast with Greg Millen, with regular partner Kelly Hrudey serving as an in-studio analyst in his role on Hockey Night in Canada in Toronto.

He is likely to start with home games before resuming travel with the Flames.

“Just thankful for every day and fingers crossed that I can get back at it because I love what I do,” Ball said. “I love calling Flames games. I love doing hockey broadcasts. I love the people I work with. It’s not a job for me. It’s something I really enjoy doing.”

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