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Foul Ball, To The Mask
by Dave
Friday, August 03, 2007
Recently, our 13-year-old catcher suffered a concussion when a fastball was tipped by the batter and hit her square in the mask. I had some conversations with parents who suggested that "you never hear about this sort of thing happening to Major League Baseball catchers. They must have better equipment." My first reaction to this was, that's an interesting point. Then I took a deeper look into the issue and discovered that's not true. Catcher concussions are a pervasive problem in baseball and softball.
Because I have suffered three sports-related concussions in my life, I am interested in the subject. None of mine occurred as a result of playing baseball. All were experienced in football. Still, I was a catcher for several years in baseball and, having been hit hard several times by foul tips, I have more than a passing interest in the issue.
As I said, some folks are under the mistaken perception that baseball catchers do not suffer concussions from foul tips to the mask. That just is not true. San Francisco Giant's Gold Glove catcher, Mike Matheny, suffered a career ending condition due to concussions caused by multiple traumas to the head from foul tips into his mask. Matheny suffered the final blow early in the 2006 season and was out for the rest of the year. His doctor refused to clear him for the 2007 season so he retired.
Following the injury, Matheny suffered headaches, fatigue, short term memory loss and difficulty with vision, particularly during exercise. The traditional symptoms associated with concussion include brief period of unconsciousness (though this is not required for a diagnosis of concussion), vomiting or nausea, general confusion (what day is it, where am I, what happened to me?), visual problems (double or blurred vision), amnesia before or after the trauma (no memory of the incident, or what happened before it, or failing short-term memory afterwards), among other things. Often sufferers experience memory loss or inability to focus the day after the injury. Sometimes depression can suddenly appear. Often the victim cannot concentrate well for a period of time after the injury has been sustained. Mildly complicated intellectual chores can be very difficult the next day or for a week afterwards. The presence or absence of any of these symptoms should not control whether or not you think you or your kid has a concussion. If you are even wondering whether someone might have a concussion, go get them evaluated by a medical doctor.
About 300,000 American athletes suffer concussions yearly. I was not able to locate figures about how many of these occur in baseball or softball, or specifically to catchers. If you have such figures, please send them our way and we'll link to the source.
Concussions are graded according to a scale of severity. There are five grades but the details are not important for purposes of this discussion. Suffice it to say that the most serious grades will earn you a hospital stay with a good deal of medical monitoring. The typical low grade concussion, however, generally makes you wait in the hospital emergency room waiting area for long enough to become sick of doctors. The typical victim is evaluated once after which he or she returns home and goes back to his or her sport within a week or so. My injuries usually kept me out of action for a full 24 hours. My longest period of inactivity was 72 hours, the shortest was 30 minutes, my coach allowing me to get back into the action as soon as I could correctly identify the number of fingers he was holding up. I failed the first time or two - I don't remember - but got it right a few minutes later after which they put me back into the scrimmage. Later doctors told me I had experienced a concussion.
Professional athletes such as MLB baseball players, are watched far more closely than the rest of us. They are evaluated almost continuously by qualified medical personnel after head trauma. And they must be cleared, as Matheny was not, before returning to action. The rest of us, particularly participants in youth sports, are left to our devices. We are told by doctors to skip sports for X period of time and then, we almost always listen to them ... until we feel better.
Inspired by Matheny's injury, four students from Kettering University decided to test the protective abilities of traditional catchers masks vs. the newer hockey style masks which are becoming more and more popular. Their findings are discussed in this article: "Foul tip trauma."
According to the Kettering research, the hockey style mask performs better than the traditional apparatus when a strike to the side of the gear occurs. This, it is suggested, happens when a hitter's bat strikes the catcher on the backswing. But, the traditional mask fared far better on forces coming straight back into it, such as occurs when a ball is tipped into the catcher. G forces were nearly 3 times as great to the head protected by the hockey-style mask than they were to the traditional one.
Finally, in my discussions with other parents, I think the general conscensus was baseball catchers are more at risk because, let's face it, baseball pitchers throw harder. But wait a minute, it's not quite so simple. A baseball is about 5 ounces. A softball is about 6.8 ounces. The weight of the object has an effect oin the size of the force experienced by the catcher's protective gear.
Without any accounting of whether a pitched ball slows as it approaches the plate, we still ought to be able to estimate the force applied by a pitched baseball and softball in order to make a reasonable guess about the size of the force experienced by each kind of catcher on a foul tip.
80-85 mph is a common speed for college baseball pitchers. You almost never see anyone hit into the 90s with the exceptions being first round draft picks. 92 is a decent estimated average speed for MLB pitchers.
By comparison, 55-60 is an average speed for high school softball. This year in our conference, there were about 6 kids who routinely hit around 60 and a couple significantly faster. One kid was clocked at 67 by college coaches at the end of the season. Another high school kid I know of, not in our conference, headed for a top 20 division one school, routinely lived around 67 and has been clocked at 70.
College pitchers typically are around 62 and up. Cat Osterman threw 62 when she was "on" but when she was over-adrenalized as she was in the 2006 WCWS, she often hit 65+. Taryne Mowatt, before she developed the blister problem, usually threw around 67 for several of her pitches. The same was true for Abbott and many other big time college pitchers, though Abbott hit 70 on several occassions. International play varies as many countries do not have well-developed programs. But the ace pitcher for Japan (who was not at World Cup due to unknown reasons), Ueno, often clocked in around 72-73.
Now, plugging these figures into the simple formula (speed times weight), the results are:
Softball
60=>408 (mph X ounces)
65=>442
67=>456
73=>496
Baseball
85=>425
92=>460
100=>500
So, in other words, a foul ball from one high school pitcher I know carries about the same degree of force as the average MLB pitcher. And a softball thrown by Abbott or Ueno, is quite a bit harder, more similar to a baseball thrown by the likes of Nolan Ryan.
I do not have any particular knowledge regarding the differences between men and women as far as their ability to withstand head trauma. My male chavinist pig intellect tells me that men are able to sustain more blunt force better than women. That may not be supported by fact but I don't think we even need to get into that. The bottom line here folks, is head trauma is a problem on the diamond, particularly behind the dish. There is no reason to believe softball catchers are even a little less at risk than their baseball brethren. And apparently the hockey style masks which are growing in popularity are not great at protecting our darling daughters from foul tips.
Please understand that I am but the father of a couple softball players and a coach of a young softball team. I have no particular expertise with which to form this analysis. All I have are my wits and an internet connection. You are similarly situated. Please form your own opinion on the issue. All I ask is that you don't fall into the traps many of us do.
If you have to ask whether this kid or that might have a concussion, let a doctor make the determination. Keep your eyes and ears open for the warning signs of head trauma, especially if your player is a catcher. Spend some time looking into the best possible gear for your catcher - keep in mind that while the traditional face mask might better protect her from foul tips, the hockey style mask is better protection against the wildly swung bat. And never assume that softball players are at any less risk because boys throw harder or any other unsupported reasons. Think the thing out. Throw away your myths.Labels: safety
Permanent Link: Foul Ball, To The Mask
 
Team Russia
by Dave
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Right now, in eastern Ohio, Protect Our Nation's Youth (PONY) is conducting its sixteen and under national championship tournament. However, the teams are not limited to United States-based organizations. There are two teams from Canada competing but that doesn't seem particularly unusual. Far more interestingly, there is also a Russian team in the field!
Several years (maybe a few decades!) ago I read a newspaper article discussing the development of Russian baseball. I believe it was in the Wall Street Journal but I really can't be sure. The article mentioned, tongue-in-cheek, how the reporter sat watching as numerous incredible physical specimens - all tall and apparently athletic - took the field with a crew of well-experienced American coaches, hired to forge the group into a real baseball team. The article's author observed as a coach smacked a grounder towards a player who fielded it cleanly, though with not quite perfect form, positioned himself to throw to first and then threw the ball "like a girl." Today that would be an inappropriate comment.
Team Russia 16U finished the pool play leg of PONY nationals with a 2-1 record. They blitzed host team, Thunder Elite, 9 - 0 in their opening game; played another local, Boardman BCB, to a 0-0 stalemate; and then triumphed over Connecticut-based CT Hornet 16U Gray 7-3, thereby earning themselves a one seed and a first round bye for bracket play. They'll be facing the northern New Jersey-based, Jersey Girls, this afternoon at 1:00 pm and if they push through that game, they will be playing against my niece's team, the Bergen Blazers, tomorrow morning.
Team Russia, based around Moscow, has played together for nine years. This is not their first time playing on US soil. Team members are being hosted by families from the Mahoning Valley where 16U Pony Nationals is being held. Two girls are staying at each home so they have a Russian speaking person with them. Some of the girls speak English better than others but all struggle with American-speak. According to local newspapers, however, they do speak the international language, music. Many of the musical acts they enjoy are the same groups American teens listen to.
While any large tournament is a blast, and national tournaments are all-consuming, this visit by the Russian team is even more so. The girls have been taken to several sites around the area to see a university, an automobile factory, and, of course, THE MALL. According to one host family, the girls love to shop!
In case you are wondering if this is the official national fastpitch team of Russia, it is not. The official Russian team is called "Carrousel Club." Each year the country conducts a tournament and the winner is funded by the country's Olympic committee as the national team. Carousel has been the official national Team Russia for international competition for more than a decade.
Russia did not qualify to play in the Olympics next year in China. The Olympic games has an 8 team field which consists of the top 4 finishers at the 2006 World Cup; host country China, and 3 additional teams which earn their bids via continental qualifying tournaments for Euro-Africa, Pan-America, and Asia. Olympic host China took fourth at the 2006 World Cup so there was a fourth place / fifth place game played for the fourth Olympic bid. That was won by Canada making the field consist of USA, Japan, Australia, China and Canada plus the other 3 qualifiers.
Russia did not compete at the 2006 World Cup. Their hope of winning an Olympic bid rested on the team's results at the Euro-Africa qualifier held in Triest, Italy last month. Russia finished tied for fifth place with the Netherlands winning the tournament and Olympic bid.
Regardless of Russia's inability to qualify for the Olympic games, I think Team Russia 16U is a very interesting and exciting development. The single most important element to getting softball back into the Olympic games and keeping it there, where it belongs, is the spread of the sport worldwide. There's never any question about whether gymnastics, swimming, ice skating, etc. will be included in future Olympic games. That's because many large and powerful nations compete in these sports. The sooner Russian softball develops into an international power, the better. This sixteen year old team is a move in that direction.
I hope Team Russia fares well at PONY Nationals although I'll be rooting against them if they win their game against the Jersey Girls and advance to play against the Bergen Blazers. If they manage to win their bracket and advance to the championship round, however, I'll be cheering for them to take the whole shooting match.
Permanent Link: Team Russia
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