Requiring Facemask for pitchers... Possible league policy... THoughts?

wheresmycar · Jun 14, 2016

MNDad said:
An emergency visit is nothing trivial, but it's a far cry from "permanent disfiguration". There's plenty of good reasons for pitchers to wear face masks, but the risk of "permanent disfiguration" certainly isn't high enough to justify mandating them. That's just a scare tactic

I'm done trying to convince the macho minority masks are important enough to mandate for youth players. I am praying none of you have to learn this lesson the hard way....

Parents of injured softball players want masks to be mandatory | Lexington Herald-Leader

ORDER REPRINT OF THIS STORY
A few weeks ago East Jessamine softball coach Tom Hamm was sitting on a bucket outside the home team's dugout calling pitches for his daughter Haylee, who was on the mound against Rockcastle County, when he got the scare of his life.

"I heard the crack of the bat but never saw the ball," Hamm said. "The next thing I heard was what sounded like another crack of the bat.
"But it was the ball hitting my daughter in the face." Haylee somehow stayed on her feet after the line drive slammed into her face, shattered the orbital floor of her left eye, sliced a deep cut into her eyebrow, and fractured her nose.

"When I first got hit, everything kind of went black," she said. "All I could think about was getting on the ground without hitting my head.
"I felt numb all over my face. A couple minutes later, I felt a lot of pain in my eye. I thought I was blind. My nose and teeth hurt, too."

Haylee was taken to the hospital and kept overnight. Doctors stitched up the laceration above her eye and monitored her condition. She did not suffer a concussion or impaired vision.
Five days later she underwent plastic surgery and a titanium plate was inserted to replace the shattered bone below her eye.

Haylee is now well on the road to recovery. She's free of pain and feels great. The scar above her eye is mostly concealed by her eyebrow. She's pitching again in practice, and is scheduled to return to game action on May 13.
That is not to say the Hamms have forgotten last month's frightening incident.

On the contrary, Tom Hamm is asking the Kentucky High School Athletic Association to adopt a rule that would require softball pitchers, as well as first basemen and third basemen, to wear protective masks.
"I know it's not a priority for a lot of coaches, parents or the KHSAA, but I can assure you it would be if they had witnessed what happened to my daughter," he said. "They'd understand how important it is."

Read more here: Parents of injured softball players want masks to be mandatory | Lexington Herald-Leader

I encourage you to read the entire article....

wheresmycar · Jun 14, 2016

Carsonsig said:
FWIW, we didnt decline to make a mandate, I said in our opening discussions, it seemed to edge towards not... but I dont know. We will see.

The issue I am hearing in my discussions is that the younger kids dont NEED it... But that it is hard to get the older kids to wear it once they are facing hotter bats... The conflict of those two viewpoints wasn't apparent to them... but we will see what happens.

Younger players need to wear mask, if for no other reason then to teach them the importance of safety. Our league mandates mouth-guards or masks.... basically 100% opt for masks.

FP26 · Jun 14, 2016

wheremycar,

I am really baffled by articles like this. I feel horrible for the children and parents involved, but parents have an obligation to be parents. They shouldn't need to be "told" or "mandated". Don't get me wrong. I am in favor of pitchers and corner infielders wearing masks. In fact, my daughter wears one. When she was younger, DW and I insisted upon it. At one point she stated "I don't want to wear it anymore". My answer was "fine, now go play in the outfield". She knew exactly what I meant by that. Now I leave the decision in her hands, and she still wears it. My point is this. I insisted that she wore the mask simply because I am her father and I felt she was too young to make the decision herself. I did not need Little League, ASA, PIAA, or any other organization to mandate this rule to me. I did it by myself.

NOTE: Again, I feel horrible for Coach Hamm and his daughter Haylee, but he could have also insisted on her wearing a mask without having a mandate. This decision was in his hands as it is for all other parents out there.

wheresmycar · Jun 14, 2016

FP26 said:
wheremycar,

I am really baffled by articles like this. I feel horrible for the children and parents involved, but parents have an obligation to be parents. They shouldn't need to be "told" or "mandated". Don't get me wrong. I am in favor of pitchers and corner infielders wearing masks. In fact, my daughter wears one. When she was younger, DW and I insisted upon it. At one point she stated "I don't want to wear it anymore". My answer was "fine, now go play in the outfield". She knew exactly what I meant by that. Now I leave the decision in her hands, and she still wears it. My point is this. I insisted that she wore the mask simply because I am her father and I felt she was too young to make the decision herself. I did not need Little League, ASA, PIAA, or any other organization to mandate this rule to me. I did it by myself.

NOTE: Again, I feel horrible for Coach Hamm and his daughter Haylee, but he could have also insisted on her wearing a mask without having a mandate. This decision was in his hands as it is for all other parents out there.

Bravo! You are a responsible parent. Not all kids are so lucky....

If you read the entire article, you see he does take responsibility for his failings as a parent and coach...

"The week before Haylee was injured, she narrowly dodged a line drive that whizzed by her face during a spring-break game in Florida.
After that close call, Tom Hamm tried to talk Haylee into wearing a mask.
"I didn't want to do it," she said. "So I ignored him."
Now her dad is sorry he didn't insist.
"I gave in to her resistance, and that's my fault as a father and a coach," Tom said. "A lot of kids don't have the insight or knowledge to make decisions they need to make."
A week later, against Rockcastle County, Haylee Hamm couldn't get out of the way of a line drive off the bat of Shelby Ham."

Read more here: Parents of injured softball players want masks to be mandatory | Lexington Herald-Leader

And as I said earlier... I don't want my kid sending another kid to the hospital because their parents were too macho or ignorant and allowed their kid to play without a mask. That is baggage no kid should have to carry.

riseball · Jun 14, 2016

FP26 said:
...NOTE: Again, I feel horrible for Coach Hamm and his daughter Haylee, but he could have also insisted on her wearing a mask without having a mandate. This decision was in his hands as it is for all other parents out there.

Unfortunately some parents are more concerned with being liked and being their kids friend than actual parenting. They leave the parenting up to the schools and other organizations to do the job for them. By abdicating their responsibility they are not the bad guy, their kids emotions are never bruised, and they are never burdened with real parental responsibility. It is much easier to rely on a mandate than to stand on principle and act accordingly regardless of the popular opinion of a teenager.

njdad · Jun 28, 2016

When I coached my daughter's 8U team, all the girls had facemasks but no one wanted to wear them. They saw the 10U girls didn't wear them and they wanted to do what the big girls do.

But I instituted a rule, the pitcher has to wear a mask. If you don't want to wear one, you can play another position. Everyone wants to play pitcher, so the girl at that spot would grudgingly wear her mask. But a funny thing, 8-year-olds often confuse cause and effect. They didn't think, "if you are the pitcher you have to wear a mask," they thought "if you wear a mask you get to be the pitcher." So suddenly all the girls wore their masks, no matter where they were playing, in the hope of being at pitcher next inning.

Now they are 10U and every player wears a mask because they grew up with them. They put them on without complaint, without being told, even during warm-ups... the same way they wear a helmet with a faceguard while batting or a catcher's mask while catching. It's just what they do.

The new 8U coach does not have the same policy regarding pitchers wearing facemasks. None of his girls wear them. But this summer when we promoted a couple of his 8U girls to our 10U team, they both started wearing their masks... because they want to do what the big girls do.

Cobb_of_Fury · Jun 28, 2016

Take a look at S.M.A.R.T - they are a group out of Ohio trying to get masks approved and required by major associations

About SMART Softball Mask Awareness and Rules Team

softgabby · Jun 28, 2016

wheresmycar said:
I'm done trying to convince the macho minority masks are important enough to mandate for youth players. I am praying none of you have to learn this lesson the hard way....

Parents of injured softball players want masks to be mandatory | Lexington Herald-Leader

ORDER REPRINT OF THIS STORY
A few weeks ago East Jessamine softball coach Tom Hamm was sitting on a bucket outside the home team's dugout calling pitches for his daughter Haylee, who was on the mound against Rockcastle County, when he got the scare of his life.

"I heard the crack of the bat but never saw the ball," Hamm said. "The next thing I heard was what sounded like another crack of the bat.
"But it was the ball hitting my daughter in the face." Haylee somehow stayed on her feet after the line drive slammed into her face, shattered the orbital floor of her left eye, sliced a deep cut into her eyebrow, and fractured her nose.

"When I first got hit, everything kind of went black," she said. "All I could think about was getting on the ground without hitting my head.
"I felt numb all over my face. A couple minutes later, I felt a lot of pain in my eye. I thought I was blind. My nose and teeth hurt, too."

Haylee was taken to the hospital and kept overnight. Doctors stitched up the laceration above her eye and monitored her condition. She did not suffer a concussion or impaired vision.
Five days later she underwent plastic surgery and a titanium plate was inserted to replace the shattered bone below her eye.

Haylee is now well on the road to recovery. She's free of pain and feels great. The scar above her eye is mostly concealed by her eyebrow. She's pitching again in practice, and is scheduled to return to game action on May 13.
That is not to say the Hamms have forgotten last month's frightening incident.

On the contrary, Tom Hamm is asking the Kentucky High School Athletic Association to adopt a rule that would require softball pitchers, as well as first basemen and third basemen, to wear protective masks.
"I know it's not a priority for a lot of coaches, parents or the KHSAA, but I can assure you it would be if they had witnessed what happened to my daughter," he said. "They'd understand how important it is."

Read more here: Parents of injured softball players want masks to be mandatory | Lexington Herald-Leader

I encourage you to read the entire article....

I ordinarily am a catcher. So my facemask is a mandatory piece of equipment. But on the occasion I'm asked to pitch, I wear a facemask too. I'm not a wearer of a mask because my parents made me or if it's mandated by my state's athletic governing body (PIAA)...but because it's my decision to. Plus shelling out around 8,000 dollars for orthodontic work helped in the decision to, too. But I feel bad for the parents and for young Haylee. I know it's a freak accident and accidents happen...I'm a living, hopefully to be playing again soon example of this with my elbow being injured. Rest assured, I'm not stepping foot in a batters box again without wearing a batters elbow gaurd.

schwabach · Jul 6, 2016

I would also add that you can more easily play a bad bounce off of a face mask than your face.

mikfish711 · Jul 18, 2016

Our rec league requires it for pitchers in at least 10u. In fact, I would say that 99% of all players in 8u and 10u wear the mask. I think its great. It provides safety and confidence for the girls.

Requiring Facemask for pitchers... Possible league policy... THoughts?

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