Aroldis Chapman

[flarays]

If the parents/players stand fast in this regard- would not the coaches concede if it meant they were to lose a top flight player- there in lies the problem, I think.. parents and TB coaches need to insist.

As a travel coach I will never make it mandatory - although I will always be in favor of it. At the showcase level the mask/no mask debate has already happened at home. College coaches make it very clear what their opinions are in this regard. In all the events we play in the summer and fall I can count on one hand the number of pitchers that wear masks. Even fewer infielders. Hopefully as the younger kids come up the trend will change.

 

[chinamigarden]

My DD's team - 14u - has told the girls they do not want them wearing them. According to them they have been told that it is a negative in the college search. I know that's an old debate and I do not want to reopen it, it's just what they have said. They have very good relationships with colleges as an organization. My DD pitches and plays third when not pitching. She likes pitching without a mask much better. She would always complain that it bothered her when pitching.

How is it up to the org? If it is true that if affects a girls chances to be recruited. If the girl and her parents chose for her to wear the mask how does that impact the coach?

 

[3DD'sDAD]

My experience - coaching third (16u) when one of my players hit it back through the box. The pitcher had no chance to defend herself but was wearing a mask. I was the first one to her when it happened. One if the scariest things I have seen in many years playing and coaching. She ended up with a fractured bone (cheek I think) in her face and a deviated septum but she was OK. I can't imagine what the outcome would have been had she not been wearing the mask. Scary stuff.

 

[knightsb]

 

[knightsb]

 

[knightsb]

[sarcastic font start] Masks, we don't need no stinking masks.... [sarcastic font end]

 

[Lenski]

The worst head injury I ever saw was in a men's softball game from a throw. The throw was from about 30 feet, the guy had a cannon of an arm and the throw hit our player sliding into second base. The ball hit him in the eye socket and broke his frontal bone, nose, maxilla (roof of his mouth), and detached his retina.

 

[flarays]

knightsb - I am glad you posted the one about the foul ball. Not only do college coaches frown on field players wearing masks - but many require players to hit without helmet masks. Crazy - and yet the SEC requires coaches to wear helmets while coaching the bases.

 

[flarays]

The worst head injury I ever saw was in a men's softball game from a throw. The throw was from about 30 feet, the guy had a cannon of an arm and the throw hit our player sliding into second base. The ball hit him in the eye socket and broke his frontal bone, nose, maxilla (roof of his mouth), and detached his retina.

Was that at Greenlawn (Berliner)?

 

[obbay]

I think it helps that I wear one. I wear it a lot, even when I am just walking across the infield - cause you know, those throws seem to come out of no where, when the girls have a ball in their hands.

That is how one girl got a concussion at HS practice. Also (in another sport) that's how DD caught a puck just below the eye.

Whenever I hear adults contesting the use of masks, I always wonder why...