Samantha Show Texas A & M

Freshman Samantha Show got a victory in her first game pitching for Texas A&M. Complete game with 13 or 14 K's. Did all of this while wearing a mask.

I'm not looking to make this into a "should everyone have to wear a mask" post. I want to simply point out that a player should be able to wear a mask if she wants without a team ridiculing her, or a coach demanding that she remove it.

I've heard firsthand coaches state that they would either not recruit a girl that wears a mask, or would tell her that she couldn't wear one once she got to their school. Well...that is about to change, because these younger kids that have all worn masks for 4-5 years(or more) are starting to finally graduate. They will start to put pressure on coaches to change their rules on masks. If you don't want to wear one then fine, but a player shouldn't be ostracized for wearing one.

When a couple of "old school" coaches get turned down by a couple of the next Jenny Finches because of their stance, then you will get schools that will publicly advocate masks in an attempt to gain an edge on the new wave of softball players moving through the college ranks.

That will only benefit the players that want the option of wearing a mask. After all, these coaches recruited the girls when they were wearing masks. How and why would you want to mess with their confidence and comfort when playing?

My DD never wanted to wear a mask. Last year, at 9 years old, she caught a line drive of a Dream Seam inches from her face. After the ball was hit she immediately went to the ground. At that time my heart just sank. Probably one of the most horrible feelings of my life. Pitching from 35 feet it all happened so fast. Thank god she is blessed with great reflexes. Later that day she said "dad, I think I want to start wearing a mask".

Here we are 6 months later and we're talking about how god sends people messages to people in different ways. I brought up the line drive incident above. Some don't survive the message, some get injured and are able to learn and move on while others escape uninjured completely. Fortunately you were lucky and escaped uninjured. 2 hours later she had a line drive deflect off of her glove and hit her in the facemask. Her comment "thank god we listened to that message eh dad!" Absolutely baby girl!

Unfortunately I think more and more pitchers will be getting hit going forward as the players and bats are getting stronger. The bat exit speeds are ridiculous. I am also noticing a trend at the younger levels (8U and 10U). Pitchers used to be your best athletes, but it doesn't seem to be the case as much anymore. Many girls want to pitch, but don't want to develop fielding skills. The very skills needed to protect themselves. Parents are doing their daughters a disservice by allowing this to happen. College pitchers often wear masks after they get hit in the face. My question is why not protect your investment and eliminate the down time, physical and emotional rehabilitation and $$ spent on medical costs by wearing the mask to begin with?

My pitcher is a great overall athlete, plays short stop like nobody's business (plus basketball), and still caught a ball in the chin at pitcher. And that was 8U (thank goodness, not quite the level of intensity you start to see in kid pitch - but there was blood and it really hurt). She's worn a mask ever since. I'm really glad we have a good 9 years before college ball. If she does play in college I imagine by then masks will be a lot more common. It should be up to the individual player but ITA, girls who want to protect their precious faces should have that option without ridicule. I'm seeing all the facemask awareness posts on Facebook right now and there are some really horrifying pictures. I love my dd's face and it's not worth the risk to have her out there without one.

I have noticed masks are worn probably by at least 80% of players at the tournaments we go to, for 10U. Not just pitcher and corners, either. Not even just infield. Even the outfielders. 100% of our girls wear them, and it's not a team rule. It just automatically happened. These girls have grown up playing with masks on. It doesn't negatively affect their performance at all. As they start entering colleges the coaches are going to have to get with the times. I only wish baseball players would wear them too. My 11 year old dd plays baseball and nobody wears one.

I recently had DD at a clinic led by a prominent D1 coach. There was over a dozen other college coaches at the Q&A session the night before the clinic. They ranged from other D1 programs to some D2s and D3s. In fact, two prominent former pitchers were also part of the panel. The question concerning masks came up, and none of them stated that masks are an issue to them. Each member of the panel was questioned, and all stated that a mask will not prevent them from recruiting a player. One coach stated "if the player can pitch, I don't care if she wears 3 masks..." I realize that what we say and what we do may not always be the same thing, but each seemed genuine in their responses. Since DD wears a mask, she was happy to hear their stance.

This came up in my FB feed just now.

MLB, players' association work together to develop more protective pitching hat

One point I want to make is that how athletic a kid is should have no bearing on whether they should wear a mask or not. There are some very hard hit balls that no human has the reaction time to get (e.g. Tori Finucane, Missouri), especially the corners where a bad hop can and will happen at any time. Let's put this fallacy to rest.

My DD was at a camp that had 10-12 college coaches in attendance. 2 schools were DI, several D2 and a two were D3. When asked the question of masks, one of the D1 schools told the girls that masks are for the parents "out there" in the audience, and not for their safety. The HC of the school stated that she will not allow a player to wear a mask.

Another coach said that she will only let a player wear a mask if they are coming back from reconstructive surgery from taking a ball to the face, but that she doesn't like it(Maybe a little late for a mask at that point, no?). She told the story of how she broke bones in her face and had to wear a mask for a year, but hated it because she felt like she was flinching and thinks that the mask made her less aggressive. - She thought the mask made her less aggressive and made her flinch? She didn't think that the fact she took a ball off her face did that?

I guess my point is that you will not change a coaches mind on masks. Your DD has to make an informed decision. She either has to accept the coaches rule, or look elsewhere for an offer to play. Once more and more girls say, "No thanks, I'm going to Univ of XYZ because I like the program and coach says I can wear a mask", then MAYBE the coaches will reluctantly start to allow them. However, I know if my DD had an offer to one of her top 3 schools and they said no masks, she would say "OK, no problem".

grcsftbll said:

I only wish baseball players would wear them too. My 11 year old dd plays baseball and nobody wears one.

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A little different. Baseball is played at 90 feet away, and by the time they are 14 years old it is played on grass. This allows the ball to slow down considerably as well as give more of a reaction time. However, baseball pitchers do tend to be in the crosshairs.

Joseph Sciara said:

A little different. Baseball is played at 90 feet away, and by the time they are 14 years old it is played on grass. This allows the ball to slow down considerably as well as give more of a reaction time. However, baseball pitchers do tend to be in the crosshairs.

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Yeah, but she's my baby.

Joseph Sciara said:

My DD was at a camp that had 10-12 college coaches in attendance. 2 schools were DI, several D2 and a two were D3. When asked the question of masks, one of the D1 schools told the girls that masks are for the parents "out there" in the audience, and not for their safety. The HC of the school stated that she will not allow a player to wear a mask.

Another coach said that she will only let a player wear a mask if they are coming back from reconstructive surgery from taking a ball to the face, but that she doesn't like it(Maybe a little late for a mask at that point, no?). She told the story of how she broke bones in her face and had to wear a mask for a year, but hated it because she felt like she was flinching and thinks that the mask made her less aggressive. - She thought the mask made her less aggressive and made her flinch? She didn't think that the fact she took a ball off her face did that?

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Joseph - would you care to name these coaches making these statements? I think a little public outing of who these coaches are and what college ("higher education"?) programs they represent could possibly go a long way towards forcing them to rethink there out dated & ill-conceived notions of protective gear impairing performance.
#facemaskawarenessmonth