STOP the shaming...

[marriard]

This is an interesting topic for me as my DD is coming from baseball. On one hand, "requiring" masks pisses me off. Why? Boys aren't required at all. So girls must be more fragile right? I'm not a 2nd or 3rd wave feminist in any way, but that mentality still bothers the living hell out of me. My DD HATES a mask on her helmet. I mean HATES it!

Welcome to fastpitch.

My experience on both sides is that I see more hits off the helmet in fastpitch as the primary pitch angle tends to be up and through the zone with the underhand release point versus baseball which is down and through with overarm pitching/pitching mounds. More balls come off the bat up and into the face in softball than baseball due to this, whereas in baseball I see more balls coming towards the head straight from the pitchers hand rather than off the the bat. Head hits are still uncommon - but less rare than baseball. Fielding wise, yeah corners and pitchers can be less than 30' from the bat - I have seen our 3B at 30' and charging to less than 10'. A fake bunt/hit is scary for corners.

That said, even in baseball I am seeing more and more of the extended flaps on batting helmets which frankly looks dumber than the cages. I have not seen a fielding mask in baseball except on a kid how has already been hit and been injured badly. But then baseball has always moved slowly on pretty much everything.

I am also of the 'parents can make their decision no matter how dumb a decision I think it is' opinion... what I can't stand is when parents try to justify it with 'little Susie doesn't want to wear a mask'. You are a parent - it is your decision. Don't pass the buck onto your child. It is not HER risk to decide to take - it is yours.

College - they can make their own minds up - but we are seeing that more and more are not removing batting cages or fielding masks as they got used to wearing them.

What do I think will happen? Well lots of equipment in mandatory in all sports for all sorts of reason including safety. I wont be surprised when it becomes a required piece of equipment.

 

[Vertigo]

Any injury would go through personal medical first then sometimes the Rec league plan can be used as supplemental. I believe some plans help to cover uninsured kids, as well.

 

[Sweet Lou]

Shamming either way is dumb.

League needs to grow a pair and make a rule. Either the masks are required for certain positions/age groups or they are not and live with it.

 

[justanotherguy]

Welcome to fastpitch.

My experience on both sides is that I see more hits off the helmet in fastpitch as the primary pitch angle tends to be up and through the zone with the underhand release point versus baseball which is down and through with overarm pitching/pitching mounds. More balls come off the bat up and into the face in softball than baseball due to this, whereas in baseball I see more balls coming towards the head straight from the pitchers hand rather than off the the bat. Head hits are still uncommon - but less rare than baseball. Fielding wise, yeah corners and pitchers can be less than 30' from the bat - I have seen our 3B at 30' and charging to less than 10'. A fake bunt/hit is scary for corners..

Thanks for explaining it. Honestly that makes more sense and something no one has yet been able to give me. Still don't like it being a requirement, but at least there's some amount of reasoning behind your explanation.

 

[justanotherguy]

Shamming either way is dumb.

This I can 100% agree with. Sadly it seems to be the common thing to do now a days, especially from a political side of the isle. Don't agree with us? Get shouted/shamed into submission.

 

[Elk Grove Hurricane]

If this were an issue for league insurance and the risk of getting hit in the face warranted you can bet the providers would jack up rates to reflect that To my knowledge league insurance is for liability and medical issues are covered by the families. I could be dead wrong, but that’s my understanding.

The League that I was affiliated with had insurance for every injury that occurred in games. We would tell the parents about it, some chose to use their own policy and others used ours. We had to have a policy to have a league, not sure if it was required by the local community services district who owned/managed the fields or if it was a USA Softball directive.

 

[sluggers]

This is an interesting topic for me as my DD is coming from baseball. On one hand, "requiring" masks pisses me off. Why? Boys aren't required at all. So girls must be more fragile right?

Your argument assumes that softball and baseball are the same...they are not. They are two different games. The main difference is the distance between the bases.

The exit velocity (speed off the bat) is about 20% lower in baseball...but the ball is about 20% lighter as well. So, the result is that the amount of damage that can be done in baseball or softball is the same.

a) In baseball, 3B is 80 to 90 feet away from the plate. In softball, 3B starts 50 feet from the plate. I've seen 3B come is as close as 20 feet from home.
b) Because it takes a base runner an extra second to get from home to 1B in baseball vs. softball, 3B doesn't have to charge as early.
c) The pitcher ends up 40 feet from the batter after a pitch.

Second, there is plenty of scientific evidence men are better at tracking moving objects than men.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/09/120903221050.htm

 

[Vertigo]

Yes! I can't believe there are people who have never heard this kind of thing. It's all over the place online.....

They “haven’t heard it” because if their kid wasn’t wearing a mask it wouldn’t have been said directly to them; and yes, if you’ve been a member of this forum for a while some of the comments I’ve mentioned have been said on here. Maybe not directly but most definitely indirectly, such as “Oh yeah - so and so college won’t recruit players who wear masks because they assume they are afraid of the ball.”

 

[BT3100]

They “haven’t heard it” because if their kid wasn’t wearing a mask it wouldn’t have been said directly to them; and yes, if you’ve been a member of this forum for a while some of the comments I’ve mentioned have been said on here. Maybe not directly but most definitely indirectly, such as “Oh yeah - so and so college won’t recruit players who wear masks because they assume they are afraid of the ball.”

I can tell you that I am with an organization that is heavily recruited from and I speak to college coaches and have never heard one coach say that they would not recruit a kid who wears a mask. Half of our pitchers wear facial protection and half don't... I have never heard a kid being teased or heard of a kid getting pressure for it. I am on the bench and would not allow it and would disciple for that type of behavior.

 

[Vertigo]

I can tell you that I am with an organization that is heavily recruited from and I speak to college coaches and have never heard one coach say that they would not recruit a kid who wears a mask. Half of our pitchers wear facial protection and half don't... I have never heard a kid being teased or heard of a kid getting pressure for it. I am on the bench and would not allow it and would disciple for that type of behavior.

I know you are.

Again, it’s not really the other kids doing any teasing, it’s been more the “old school” coaches in my experience making the comments, and yes, there are high school coaches around here who forbid their players from wearing them (not quite sure how they get away with it but that’s another topic for a different day).

I think you’re failing to see that I’ve actually been agreeing with your general statement in your OP that adults shouldn’t shame kids whether it be pro face mask or no face mask. Please keep in mind (and this goes for both sides of the argument), just because you personally haven’t experienced it, doesn’t mean that others have not, as well.