DealZone

Duncan Niederauer, the head of New York Stock Exchange operator NYSE Euronext, opened the company’s quarterly earnings conference call with this riddle on Thursday:

“What do Rich Repetto, Carlos Delgado, and Jose Reyes have in common? …They are all on the disabled list as a result of baseball-related injuries.”

“So, Rich, I heard you hurt yourself at Yankee Stadium the other night and I hope you’ve recovered,” the CEO continued. ”I was pleased to hear that while you were crashing into the wall you managed to hold on to the ball and make the catch in spite of being knocked unconscious. Congratulations. Hopefully you’ll be back in the lineup sooner than Delgado and Reyes.”

Repetto, the popular financial analyst at Sandler O’Neill, wasn’t pinch hitting for the New York Mets. Nor the Yankees for that matter. And turns out he didn’t actually crash into a wall. But he was playing shortstop when those attending a corporate event last week decided to play a little pick-up softball game in the outfield, after taking a tour of the new Yankee Stadium.

Corporate types set up a makeshift diamond in the outfield (the sandy infield was off-limits), taking advantage of a Yankees roadtrip.  Repetto, who played ball in high school, says he made a couple of plays earlier in the game. So when a blooper soared just over his head, he backpeddled, dove backward and secured the out — “just before landing straight on my head,” he said afterward.

The stock analyst was unconscious for about 10 seconds, and was very groggy upon recovery, before a paramedic accompanied him to a Bronx hospital. “It’s kind of a joke now, but it wasn’t funny at the time,” Repetto said.