Mask or No Mask

[KCPhoto]

Your points are valid, however you may have wanted to use an example that showed how a mask would have made a difference. In this case it would not made any difference. To your point worse injuries are possible, car crashes, drownings, etc. all which are as relevant to wearing a mask as the injury shown in the video. This goes to the point that this is an emotion driven issue, with little application of logic or empirical data.

True, this player did not get hit in the face. But this was an incident that occurred timely and illustrated getting hit by a hard struck ball.

Baseball pitchers are more likely to be hit on the side or top of thier head because of how they finish thier delivery. I've seen local baseball pitchers wearing an insert in thier caps that protect the tops of thier heads.

Softball pitchers finish thier delivery with body and face up toward batter and are more likely to get hit in the face than the top or side of head.

Further, we train fielders to watch the ball into the glove. If executing properly, they will be more likely to receive a face hit.

 

[schwabach]

Putting to rest this mindset that wearing a mask somehow indicates an inferior or less confident player is the important thing. With more girls in the circle and in the infield wearing masks, I would say there is good progress in this area.

 

[Tom V]

What's the argument for NOT wearing a mask? As long as she can play SS well wearing one, why not use this extra level of safety equipment. I used to be anti-mask, but I have seen way too many injuries to the infielders to not let my DD use a mask playing P or 1B. These young girls need their faces and teeth long after they hang up the metal cleats.

Best response I've read.
Masks should be mandatory in TB and HS for all infielders. A Coach shouldn't be making that choice for somebody else's daughter. Is the coach going to be there for her to make smoothies because her teeth are gone? NO. Is the coach going to be there for her when she doesn't get a date to the prom because she looks like Frankenstein? NO. Is the coach going to pick up the medical bills? NO.
As a parent you are crazy to want to deal with this unnecessary stuff over a perceived slight advantage in a sport that very, very few will ever be rewarded financially. If a girl makes a error and blames it on the mask that is probably the same girl who wants a new bat every time she strikes out.
When the girls are adults they can make their own decisions, but until then P and all IF's should be required to wear a mask.

 

[riseball]

Best response I've read.
Masks should be mandatory in TB and HS for all infielders. A Coach shouldn't be making that choice for somebody else's daughter. Is the coach going to be there for her to make smoothies because her teeth are gone? NO. Is the coach going to be there for her when she doesn't get a date to the prom because she looks like Frankenstein? NO. Is the coach going to pick up the medical bills? NO.
As a parent you are crazy to want to deal with this unnecessary stuff over a perceived slight advantage in a sport that very, very few will ever be rewarded financially. If a girl makes a error and blames it on the mask that is probably the same girl who wants a new bat every time she strikes out.
When the girls are adults they can make their own decisions, but until then P and all IF's should be required to wear a mask.

So you want to mandate use for all infielders at all levels of play. Why do you care less about outfielders than you do about infielders. What data brings you to the conclusion that they are less worthy of the protection? Why is this discussion limited to softball only? Why are males less worthy of the protection when they are at greater risk of injury? Where does this mandate nonsense end?

 

[grcsftbll]

So you want to mandate use for all infielders at all levels of play. Why do you care less about outfielders than you do about infielders. What data brings you to the conclusion that they are less worthy of the protection? Why is this discussion limited to softball only? Why are males less worthy of the protection when they are at greater risk of injury? Where does this mandate nonsense end?

Even on our pretty low level 8U rec teams, the outfielders weren't in much danger even if a ball did make it out to them. There's so much time to get ready out there & with all the open space, a much lower risk of the ball even going near enough to an outfielder to hit them. It's not that they're not worthy, just that the risk of any sort of serious injury from a ball hitting them is super low. Though I will say our teams, both 10U and 8U, have 100% masks including outfielders.

I wish there were more discussion of face masks for baseball. My older DD plays baseball and none of them wear masks, though I have started to see pitchers wearing masks at younger age groups. So far, none at her level though (12U rec & all stars). If I had sons I'd want them to keep all their teeth too, though it is true they finish in a totally different position and a face mask might not protect pitchers in baseball enough to be useful.

 

[Tom V]

So you want to mandate use for all infielders at all levels of play. Why do you care less about outfielders than you do about infielders. What data brings you to the conclusion that they are less worthy of the protection? Why is this discussion limited to softball only? Why are males less worthy of the protection when they are at greater risk of injury? Where does this mandate nonsense end?

The data is a ball weighing almost a 1/2 pound traveling upwards of 70 mph on different surfaces with variable weather conditions.
Experience trumps data. In 14u a second baseman (playing against my daughtrs team), in good fielding position, playing in with a runner on 3rd got popped right in the face on a hard hit one hopper that took a strange upwards hop. Out like a light for a few seconds, thank god she had a mask on. Ambulance came and took her away. Girls on both teams crying, the poor batter sat out the rest of the game because she couldn't compose herself. The girl we were told the next day at the tourney was OK. Without the mask I don't think so.

 

[KCPhoto]

Quoted from MLB website article:

"Five MLB pitchers were struck in the head by line drives last year, four of them in the face. None of the new caps protect the facial area, but line drives to the side of the head are considered more life-threatening."

Here is the article:
http://m.mlb.com/news/article/164382304/mlb-pitcher-head-protection-coming-in-spring/

With injuries to side of head considered more life threatening, I believe that facemasks mandated in softball and continuing to coach them to keep thier eye on the ball (face toward the ball) to get more balls in the glove is a no-brainer, or maybe a brain-saver.

 

[Golfclubgreg]

no mask=no play for my DD, and thats from me :}

 

[slugger]

Best response I've read.
Masks should be mandatory in TB and HS for all infielders. A Coach shouldn't be making that choice for somebody else's daughter. Is the coach going to be there for her to make smoothies because her teeth are gone? NO. Is the coach going to be there for her when she doesn't get a date to the prom because she looks like Frankenstein? NO. Is the coach going to pick up the medical bills? NO.
As a parent you are crazy to want to deal with this unnecessary stuff over a perceived slight advantage in a sport that very, very few will ever be rewarded financially. If a girl makes a error and blames it on the mask that is probably the same girl who wants a new bat every time she strikes out.
When the girls are adults they can make their own decisions, but until then P and all IF's should be required to wear a mask.

That’s fine just as long as they are mandatory for the base coaches. They are a lot closer than the middle infielders and sometimes they aren’t even paying any attention. Plus I have seen how some of these coaches move. Some of them can’t even get out of a fielders way let alone a line drive.

 

[TMD]

As an AC on an 18U A travel team, all of our pitchers wear a mask, half of our IFers wear one, and one girl will also wear one if she is in the OF. We cannot mandate that they wear masks, but I am glad to see so many choosing to wear them.

Safety devices such as masks shouldn't be used as a precaution against a lack of skill (except at the very youngest levels), but rather as a precaution against the inherent dangers of the game. Pitchers are in an exposed awkward position immediately after a pitch and masks (and padded undershirts to protect chest/heart) are an easy precaution to limit that exposure. 1B and 3B while less exposed than pitchers, are still put in positions of relative exposure to hard shots, bad hops, etc., and should be masked up. Middle infielders have less exposure to hard liners given the additional distance and time to react, but are definitely exposed to hard chops/bad hops. OF are the least exposed, but masks shouldn't be worn because you may miss a fly ball and get hit (except maybe at the youngest levels when first learning how to catch fly balls). Sure a hard liner can take a weird hop in the grass, but by and large the ball has lost much of its initial velocity by then.

At the end of the day, and unless/until it becomes mandated, it's going to be a personal choice (or parental choice). I wish more people would make the choice to wear a mask, and am happy to see things trending in that direction, but back to the OC, the other coach was way out of line to yell at the player that way.