Face guards would reduce youth baseball injuries, study says

Booster Shots recently reported that some cities are outlawing the use of metal bats in youth baseball in order to reduce the risk of injuries to the pitcher and fielders from hard-hit balls. Now a study has been published calling for the use of face shields or mouth guards for all high school-age fielders.

The study, published today in the journal Pediatrics, reviews baseball injuries from 100 high schools from 2005 through 2007. The authors, from Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, found that shoulder injuries were the most common (17.6%), followed by ankle injuries (13.6%) and head and face injuries (12.3%). But it was the nature of the head and face injuries that concerns the authors of the study. They noted that greater proportions of injuries attributed to being hit by a batted ball were to the head, face or mouth compared with injuries not caused by the batted ball. In addition, a greater proportion of injuries caused by a batted ball required surgery (18%) compared to other baseball-related injuries.

High school baseball is relatively safe, the authors say. But they "strongly recommend helmets with face shields or at least mouth guards and eye protection be used by pitchers, infielders and batters at the high school level." Baseball players are used to wearing batting helmets, and softball rules have changed to mandate the use of a face shield on the batting helmet. Are fielding helmets next?

- Shari Roan   

Photo: Jack Plunkett / Associated Press

Comments

[Ted Sillanpaa]

My son's an elite-level 12-year-old baseball pitcher and he's taken line drives off both kneecaps in successive pitching appearances. The reacation time pitching from 51 feet away from the plate, with hitters using high-performance metal bats, is almotst zero. Either of those liners hit him in the head and it would have been tragic...or fatal. I'm an old-school baseball guy who can't envision my son pitching with a place mask...but, then again, I can't imagine him being seriously injuredbecause youth leagues yield to bat manufacturers and put young pitchers at risk.

I'm leaning to getting him a mask...so he can be mocked, but safe, in elite competition. And, I'm lobbying youth organizations to go to composite wood bats. I urge other parents to join me.

tarvos0@yahoo.com

[julie c.]

I am now a firm believer in doing something to regulate the bats that are being used in youth baseball or have some sort of screen in front of the pitcher. They are completely defenseless as fast as it comes off the bat.
My 14 year old son was pitching and was hit in the jaw right in front of the ear. There was no chance to react to move or to get a glove up. He broke his jaw in two places. It required surgery and had two titanium plates/screws and has his jaw wired shut. If he would have been hit by the eye it could have crushed his eye socket and done permanent eye injury or in the temple with an unthinkable outcome. The doctor said that the impact was so bad near the joint of the jaw that it broke the jaw bone about half-way to his chin-just from the impact because it snapped it out.
The bats allowed in addition to closer pitching mound is scary. My husband has been a high school coach for 25 years and has never experienced a high school player with an injury this severe.
I ordered a face guard just a few minutes ago. I agree with tarvos-that they may get made fun of.....but is worth it to have them safe. All of the other players on his team saw what happened and the end result and know that they would not make fun of him and the other parents may want their son to wear it when they pitch too.

[Mike]

Yes a mask for High School baseball players is worth it. My son a HS pitcher was hit with a line drive in the face. Multiple broken bones,ten days in a trauma center, 150,000 in medical bills. This year he will be wearing a mask made by Rip Hamilton's Doctor.