Lot of interesting reading. Would the girls still wear mask if they used wood bats. Would the mask have been developed if the "hot" bats had never been developed. Players are getting bigger,stronger,faster and so is the equipment (bats). Look at golf and the rukus about moving tees back with the "hot" drivers/clubs. The last few yrs I played slow pitch I saw a lot of 300ft shots go out by pot bellied middle aged men that wouldn't be able to do it without a composite high tech piece of engineering marvel. By the way I am pot bellied, middle age and out of shape. The rec director talked about limiting HR's due to so many hit out. I loudly fought it. I did not want the young, strong, in shape, guys hitting line drives at me at 3rd because they were out of HR's. There are times when "new technology" isn't the best thing to happen.
3rd baseman hit with line drive
- Thread starter Amy in AZ.
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- Jun 22, 2008
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Why don't you have catchers go out there barehanded? Helmets were not always required by batters or catchers, nor were chest protectors or shin guards. For that matter, with the exception of the mask, is it only required for JO ball.
Of course, I have the same opinion of all safety equipment. If you aren't smart enough to protect yourself, you probably shouldn't be there to begin. Same with the kids. If the parents aren't smart enough to protect them, maybe they shouldn't be there. Why in the name of anyone would a parent need to be told they have to protect their children?
So, why wouldn't the team/organization with which you were associating make you aware of what was out there to protect their players? Seems to me, that should be a common practice.
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Becasue we were a rec organaization playing summer all-stars, the equivalent of low to mid-B level tournaments though a few A teams would occasionally show up trophy hunting. I'm really not sure how many in the org were farmilar with the masks at the time, this was about 5 years ago. My DD though is the reason that masks have became quite common throughout our org the following year and have grown in popularity each year since.
- Apr 1, 2010
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I was a little miffed at her attitude about batting masks. That foul ball into Hosack's face was scary, she could have ended up out of softball for good, but if she'd been wearing a batting mask, the ball hitting off it probably wouldn't have even been noticed. Are there any statistics to back up the implied notion that girls without batting masks hit better than girls with?
And Nuveman's got no ground to take a position on fielding masks. As a catcher, she didn't go out there on defense without great face protection.
- Apr 1, 2010
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I never saw a fielder's mask when DD was in rec. There were a lot of girls who didn't even own their own bat, cheap or otherwise.
- Jun 22, 2008
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Don't understand that, they've been around much longer than that. I'm just curious as to why an organization, and being rec is irrelevant, involved in a sport is not up to date with everything involving the sport.
It isn't like you need to go down to the library and spend hours doing research. It takes less than 30 seconds to google this stuff and get an idea of what to look for.
When we played rec ( Little League) nobobdy wore fielders masks and many had no masks on thier helmets. A few tournament kids would play every year and wear thier fielders masks and the rec kids/coaches/parents would all make fun of them. Hopefully that attitude has changed.
Odd. You would hope the TB girls came in and played circles around the LL girls so that would make the LL girls want to emulate the TB girls to get better. At least that is how it usually works in my world.
Let me guess, the coach(s) daughters were one of the kids without a mask or maybe a little inferiority complex about being a LL coach instead of a TB coach?
I really hope this mindset goes away. It's like everything else in life, if you want to wear a mask then do it. If you don't then don't. It is a personal (or family when young) decision and that player/family must accept the consequence(s) of their decision.
- Jun 22, 2008
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People who feel the need to mock others for personal choices are simply masking their deficiencies and ignorance.
- Jan 10, 2013
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DD's 11u(small community, #'s are a factor) rec league switched from a 12" to 11" ball last year. It was immediately evident to me that my DD would be using a mask. As a coach, I recommended that the local softball club supply the 3 teams it supported with at the very least 1 mask for the pitchers. It did, and while 2 of the teams used them, one did not. Lack of education and understanding of risk is probably most of the explanation.
Maybe our team could run a small fundraiser or something this spring so all the kids can have one, and not rely on someone else to pay for it.
Maybe our team could run a small fundraiser or something this spring so all the kids can have one, and not rely on someone else to pay for it.
