Oakland A's pitcher Brandon McCarthy was hit in the head by a line drive. The blow to the head instantly dropped him to the ground. He was able to get up and walk off the field, but he suffered a epidural hemorrhage, a brain contusion and a fracture skull that required a two hour surgery.
Brandon McCarthy was lucky, he was released from the hospital today.
There have been kids that were not so lucky. Seemingly, every year kids die. I have written about this subject several times in the past.
Here is the deal. It is quite simple. The powers that control little league baseball have already mandated BBCOR bats to protect pitchers. Now they need to mandate helmets for pitchers.
All pitchers should wear helmets. I wish MLB would mandate it. The MLB makes first base coaches wear helmets, so it can be done. MLB should decree it to protect big league players. More importantly, the MLB should decree it to set an example for little league, HS, College and minor league players.
At the very least, I would love to see a prominent MLB pitcher wear a helmet to show kids that it is not uncool.
The Main Point
Parents do not need to wait until the MLB mandates the use of helmets. They should talk to their kid's coach and make it a requirement for pitching. My son didn't pitch much, but when he did, he wore a helmet. When my son was younger, his coach made everyone wear them. His coach did this because one of his players almost died from a line drive to the head. Almost 5 years later, that player still struggles with the debilitating affects of the injury. My son knows the kid very well, so it does not take any effort to get my son to wear a helmet when he is pitching.
Buy a helmet from the link below.
Great article. My son is just starting to pitch and I am seriously considering having him wear a helmet. I have been looking for the face mask for his batting helmet which has not been easy to find.
ReplyDeleteThanks for addressing this.
Jeff
www.therustyarm.com
My son got hit in the face with a fastball when he was 10, but I never really worried about a face guard for hitting. I was more worried about a helmet for pitching. Buy the pitching helmet for your son by clicking on the link in the post. If McCarthy was wearing a helmet he would be pitching in next game in the rotation.
DeleteI agree compeletely with your position on this. However, I must caution that the helmet you recommend (and similar products, which are catchers' skull caps) are NOT engineered for protection as are batting helmets, which have dramatically more padding, and thus they will not offer nearly that degree of protection. Batting helmets have extensive padding and they are tested for protection from thrown balls. Catchers' skullcaps do not have this padding, and batted balls travel even faster than pitches (one of Giancarlo Stanton's homers was over 120MPH off the bat). Skullcaps also do not have earflaps. I think it is unsupportable to say that if McCarthy was wearing one of these helmets he wouldn't have missed a start. David Wright was hit in the helmet -- the padded batting helmet -- by a pitch and sustained a concussion that sidelined him for weeks. I'm not saying a skullcap wouldn't afford some protection, but I think you are dramatically overstating the case. Easton briefly offered a pitcher's helmet that was designed for the job, but it seems to have been discontinued. We need some purpose-built headgear for pitchers. Make-do solutions are not going to get it done.
ReplyDeleteHi Coach Dan - Thanks for adding to the conversation. I wish that there was a specific helmet for the job that was both functional and baseball fashionable (probably not the best word) The Easton helmet looked like a bike helmet. http://www.statsdad.com/2011/03/youth-baseball-new-prototype-helmet-to.html
DeleteUntil then the catchers skull cap will be better than nothing.
ReplyDeletePlay with confidence knowing that you have the right golf clubs, golf apparel, golf balls, golf bags, golf
rangefinders, golf gloves, and golf accessories to match your game from Golf Galaxy. Shop the top golf
manufacturers including Adams, adidas, Callaway, Cleveland, Cobra, FootJoy, Nike, PING, TaylorMade, and Titleist.
golf Shop
golf Store
golf product
american golf clubs
discount golf clubs
We just required skull caps for our pitchers in our live-pitch little league divisions. I would agree that some protection is better than nothing, but clearly there needs to be a helmet that is actually designed to protect pitchers. Some type of drop down ear cover would significantly increase protection.
ReplyDelete