3rd baseman hit with line drive

[3'sDad]

The DD went to a mask when pitching and playing IF after a team mate took a ball in the mouth 2nd year 12U. She started with the Game Face because it was lighter plastic and switched to the Rip-It last year as the bars are spaced wider apart and it allows foir more air flow in the hot summer months.

DD is a sophomore in HS.

 

[MTR]

I think there are other ways to protect the kids without changing the rules of play. The answer is simply common sense approach to equipment.

Really? Full armor? If people are afraid their little girl will not get a scholarship if they wear at simple mask, do you think they will support them wearing anything more?

Want me to really stir things up? How about COACHING the players to not charge until there was a bunt? Now come the screams that they will never be able to get them out at 1B!!! Fine, move the bases back 5'.

 

[Sweet Lou]

Really? Full armor? If people are afraid their little girl will not get a scholarship if they wear at simple mask, do you think they will support them wearing anything more?

Want me to really stir things up? How about COACHING the players to not charge until there was a bunt? Now come the screams that they will never be able to get them out at 1B!!! Fine, move the bases back 5'.

I could be wrong but I don't think he was suggesting girls go out there looking like knights for a medieval jousting tournament. I beleive he was referring to taking a little of the life out of the hot bats in addition to removing the stigma from wearing a face masks.

 

[nanotech14]

We just need that one girl. The top prospect for a D1 school, to wear a face mask and tell the D1 schools, I wear it or I go to the next school that doesn't have a problem wearing it. Then meet the D1 school that wouldn't take her and beat them in the college world series and then hand the coach that let her go and ask if he needs the mask to hide his face. I would pay to see that.

 

[coach james]

^^^ditto^^^
My dd will not play another defensive play without her mask on.

 

[ROCKNFIRE]

Just let me first say that it is terrible to read about another young child getting hit in the mannor she did. It is just unfortunate that there are so many people are against the protective mask. I have to admitt that I was one of those folks at one time. Oh I said felt the same way. It didnt look good ,it compromised her performance, to hot, in the way all the time,my dd is to good of an athlete.Till I experianced a bullet sent to my daughters right eye socket from a hotshot off of a composite bat. Nine hours in ER ,CT scans ,MRIs, head trauma specialist visiting with me about head trauma ,discussions about loss of an eye. Not to mention all the after care ,floaters in her vision now. Lets not forget the the trauma it forced on her family and friends and team mates and anyone else who seen it happen. I had a parent ask me the other day ask if her daughter could move to my 16u team because her current coach told her if she wore her mask she wouldnt be on his team. She was ridiculed by her team for protecting her face. REALLY? The more I read on this subject I some times begin to question peoples sanity. Yet I have to remember I was one of the sheep in the past saying oh that will never be my girl or anyone on my team.

 

[MTR]

I could be wrong but I don't think he was suggesting girls go out there looking like knights for a medieval jousting tournament. I beleive he was referring to taking a little of the life out of the hot bats in addition to removing the stigma from wearing a face masks.

The "hot" bats have become a very convenient excuse for everything the past 10 years. I don't think they are any more to blame than the improved athleticism and skill development we have seen in the young ladies in the game of softball over the past couple of decades. Then again, how much of that improvement is due to the more hi-tech equipment available in today's market?

Then there is the hypocrisy of using the bats as the reason for the game being dangerous. You have people point at the evil bats and complain how dangerous they are on one board and then turn around and brag about they scored the best and hottest bat for the next-to-be league HR champion on another. So now you have the question of what is more important, your DD getting the hit or the fielder charging recklessly toward a player with one of those bats?

I would have no issue with going back to the wood bat, but what are you going to do the first time a charging F5 gets drilled? Whiffle ball? Need to remember, these injuries are not new to the sport, just more frequent and visible.

I have no problem with a player wearing whatever allows them to play the game, but I'm not the one worried about what the coach thinks. You've been around enough to see how people look at some of the most ridiculous issues and, at times, it is scary to think where the priorities lie.

There are a lot of things that go into the sport and the risks involved and, like it or not, if you are looking for a risk-free environment, maybe another sport would be the appropriate move. I don't believe there is any single resolution.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

i have tried to figure out why, in the 15 years that I played, getting line drived with the ball was never an issue. I think that the batters must be better. I played a few years with a wooden bat and there was no, what length and weight is it (that I can remember.) I do remember when I was shown my first aluminum bat, and that was about 1969. Then, of course, everyone went to that and there was no more wood.

We did hit the ball linear and down, but there were still line drives. Plus, the ball was like a heavy rock. Maybe that is it. Maybe the ball just died sooner.

 

[Sweet Lou]

IDK, when I played hardball we started with wood but aluminum was coming in. By the time my youth days were over it was all aluminum but the bats were for the most part single wall aluminum and never more than a drop 5 (-5) and most were drop 3 (-3).

MTR, I'm not blaming this soley on hot bats or using that as an excuse but I for one would love the standards on aluminim and composite bats to require exit speeds consistant with what top performing wood bats produce. To me that would require players to have skillz to succeed not just be able to put a huge sweet spot hot barrel on the ball and have it fly off. But that's just my opinion feel free to disagree.

As for parents getting their kids hot bats, as long as it is allowed why should they put their daugher at a disadvantage with a leesor performing bat when the opponets are mostly likely going to be using the allowable hot bat? If the change is going to come it is going to come at the association levels enforcing the rules on bat manufaturers. But even with wood bats you are right these injuries would still happen, they'd just be a lot less common.

 

[sportinus]

From reading the research it's not clear to me that these actually work.

What research claims that they do not work? The companies research claims different. It seems to me that any dvice that spreads the force out should help to alleviate some damage. I am going to look into the EVO-Shield.

As far as those who say toughen up, how MLbers do you see less than 30 feet from the batter? If you told them to do that, what do you think there answer would be. I see these guys come up to bat with so many pads and shields on, give me a break.