Pitching and Pitchers Discussion Ball State Pitcher Hit at camp

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Spoke to a D3 coach a few weeks ago who said the same thing. There are college coaches who will not even look at a player who uses a mask.

A college coach who is watching a pitcher throw heat up in the mid 60's with great movement will say I'm not going to look at her because she has a mask? Find that hard to believe. I think that the times have changed with the new generation. Besides, years ago the bats were not as hot as they are now.

 

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I certainly see more and more masks at 16U and under games; there are many more in 18u than there used to be too. I HOPE eventually coaches will stop being so dismissive of them and maybe in 10 years we'll see them being used on the college softball fields. My heart just breaks for the athlete and the parents any time I read one of these posts.

 

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Hope she is okay. Sad thing is if girls wear the face protection they have a difficult time getting recruited. I have had several D1 coaches question the masks and tell me they will not recruit a girl who ears them.

I had a D1 coach a few weeks ago tell me the same thing....we were watching a game and the 14u pitcher had on a mask and the Coach made the comment to me about how the Coach disliked seeing players wear masks. I asked the Coach why and the Coach replied "that's what your glove is for".

 

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My daughter was at a D1 Camp recently where wearing a mask came up by the head coach. The coach asked why girls were wearing them and were they scared of being hit. Coach made it clear she wasn't a fan of players wearing them, but if my DD played 3rd or pitched I would make her wear one.

 

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A college coach who is watching a pitcher throw heat up in the mid 60's with great movement will say I'm not going to look at her because she has a mask? Find that hard to believe. I think that the times have changed with the new generation. Besides, years ago the bats were not as hot as they are now.

Just a little correction here but the bats today are no where close to being as hot as they were I'n the early 2000,s. The bats at that time were the reason the fielding masks were invented to begin with .

ASA changed the ball exit speed standards I'n 2006 or so and have dumbed bats down. The old synergy and r/t,s have since been banned by some sanctions and the NCAA .

What you see I'n bats today is the reduced version of the older bats.


Tim

 

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I have to agree, talk to several DI coaches and they will tell you they frown on players wearing face masks. If your a middle infielder and you wear one, you need to go play outfield, no reason for you to be wearing one, unless playing on gravel. Sorry, but I totally don't like middle infielders wearing them.

The quote I get from numerous DI coaches and DII's is learn how to play the position and you won't need one.

Heard the same...over and over, as well.

 

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Just a little correction here but the bats today are no where close to being as hot as they were I'n the early 2000,s. The bats at that time were the reason the fielding masks were invented to begin with .

ASA changed the ball exit speed standards I'n 2006 or so and have dumbed bats down. The old synergy and r/t,s have since been banned by some sanctions and the NCAA .

What you see I'n bats today is the reduced version of the older bats.


Tim

So true. I'll never forget the first time I saw an '05 RT in action. A young lady came to a game with her new RT. Before she was swinging an old 7046 or CU31 alloy bat and couldn't get the ball out of the infield. With her shiny, new '05 RT she was hitting BOMBS!!! The first thing I thought was how dangerous that bat was, because the young lady in question should not be hitting like that. Imagine that thing in the hands of a person who knew how to swing a bat!

Bat manufacturers toyed around with different alloys and materials in the late '80s to early '90's, but bats like the RT's really changed the landscape of the fastpitch...and slow pitch sofball game IMO. Because of the extremely hot bats, people began wearing protection in the infield. What's amazing is that the people screaming for protecting the infielders with masks and such are the very same people buying the latest and greatest performing bat money can buy and screaming and yelling about potential nerfing. A bit hypocritical....don't you think??

Len

 

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My older daughter sent 3 players to the ER when they bunted the ball into their own face in the last travel ball season before they made the face mask mandatory on the batting helmets. The next year there were absolutely no injuries to a batters face.

A face mask on a pitcher through high school should be mandatory at all levels. One hard hit ball can cause death, blindness, brain damage, disfigurement , etc.... . For 40 bucks I can buy a piece of equipment that will turn most of these disasters into a headache.

If we made them mandatory while these kids were learning their craft, the college coaches would have no choice but to recruit players with face masks. The college coaches will never take the lead on this because they are tough and none of the men played at 43'.

 

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Is there a parent out there that would trade a smashed face for a scholorship? I wouldn't. No amount of money or bragging rights is worth that.

With all the extreme safety measures taken today in all sports, why is fastpitch softball not proactive in protecting the girls?

Look at high school football. How many of us had our "bell rung" in practice or a game back in the day only for the caoch to throw some water in our faces and tell us to shake it off and get the cob webs out? What we used to play with is now monitored by a physician and the kids are kept on the sideline until cleared by the doc.

I suppose nothing will happen until we have a few more horrific incidents or a couple deaths from a batted ball. A few sacrificial lambs may make a difference huh?

 

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I resent the implication that because my daughter wears a mask while pitching that she's either afraid of the ball or doesn't know how to field a ball. By the time she finishes her motion and delivers the ball, she has few precious seconds to take a defense postion against a line drive. She's caught (in her glove) line drives inches to the side of head.

She also plays 3rd base. She doesn't wear a mask even though her father and I would prefer it. She's taken a few bad hops to the face resulting in a black eye and a chipped tooth (with a mouthguard in).

As for batting, it makes absolutely no sense not to wear a face mask. There are just too many variables. I'm betting the girl from Baylor wishes she had one on.

 

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Everyone is entitled to their own opinion respectfully. I think these people that make the comments on the players wearing a protective mask do not have empathy. The whole afraid of the ball is nonsense. The fear is more of being injured or killed. Even with a glove people will make mistakes and misjudge a ball or completely miss the ball at any age. If you wear a helmet on a motorcycle are you a scared? Just doesn't make sense that a coach would say that. What would they think if their daughter was killed by getting hit in the temple by a hit ball travelling at 100mph from 40 feet away?

 

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Everyone is entitled to their own opinion respectfully. I think these people that make the comments on the players wearing a protective mask do not have empathy. The whole afraid of the ball is nonsense. The fear is more of being injured or killed. Even with a glove people will make mistakes and misjudge a ball or completely miss the ball at any age. If you wear a helmet on a motorcycle are you a scared? Just doesn't make sense that a coach would say that. What would they think if their daughter was killed by getting hit in the temple by a hit ball travelling at 100mph from 40 feet away?

Great analogy. if you wear a helmet on a motorcycle, it's because it makes sense. If you were afraid of crashing you wouldn't get on the bike in the first place. I wouldn't let someone else's ignorance endanger the welfare of my child. It just isn't worth it.

Someone is going to have to come up with a much better rational than "she must be afraid of the ball", to convince me. Think about how ridiculous that assertion is. If anything, in my opinion, the girl will field the ball with much more confidence while wearing a mask, bacause she doesn't have to worry about that liner or bad hop as much when she has the mask on.

 

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Spoke with someone at BSU, the girl is going to be fine, itching to get back to pitching.

Wasn't trying to do any stirring of the pot on this, just wanted to restate my belief that there is not enough protective gear on the young ladies. Fortunately, my daughter had a coach at 12U that "MADE" ("Gosh dad, is K serious, this thing is annoying!") her wear a game face...and at 16 years now, her opinion is that she will not field without it, and her teeth and braces are fully in tact.

Also, she has -NO FEAR- of a line drive while playing 1st or 3rd. Fun to watch.

 

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Wonder is this is also a kind of a machismo kind of thing with coaches - - that they won't be the first college team to field 'a bunch of girls who are (ostensibly) wimps and can't play their positions'?


PS - great news about that pitcher!

 

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I encourage pitchers and at least corner players to wear them. Anyone else that wants to wear them is fine with me also. IMO, it's a personal piece of safety equipment, so who am I to tell them that they can't or shouldn't wear them. You wouldn't encourage boys to avoid wearing a cup, would you? Why not?

I had a father knocked out cold for at least 10-15 seconds two years ago by a ball thrown by an 11 year old girl. I know that he was more than competent to catch a ball, but he didn't see it coming.

My youngest was playing on a well-known 10u team, 2 years ago as a 9 year old. She was playing 3rd and one of the assistant coaches was yelling to her from the bench to take her mask off. I told him that if he ever does that again, it will be the last time he sees her. ;&

 

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Hope she is okay. Sad thing is if girls wear the face protection they have a difficult time getting recruited. I have had several D1 coaches question the masks and tell me they will not recruit a girl who ears them.

I think i would of said to that coach " thats good to know, because now i wont send any of my players to your school"

Why do catchers have to wear all that gear, i mean the ball is only going 60mph +. The catchers have more time to watch the ball as it is traveling way less then 100 mph and they to have a glove to protect themselves as well.

Or tell the coach to get on the mound if they are so moucho, and i will hire Miss Bustos to hit it back to them, lets see if they change there mind after 2 or 3 hits.

 

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Why do college coaches not like the idea of masks? Four words: FEAR OF THE BALL.

I would say wearing the mask along with the Evo Shield Chest protector "MAKES THE PLAYER FEARLESS OF THE BALL"

 

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Why do catchers have to wear all that gear, i mean the ball is only going 60mph +. The catchers have more time to watch the ball as it is traveling way less then 100 mph and they to have a glove to protect themselves as well.

Catchers wear the gear due to foul balls.

Len

 

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I know Len, I was being alittle sarcastic.

Pitchers 40ft away with a 100mph line drive have .273 Thousandths of a second to react to the ball. The corners at 30 ft away have .204 Thousandths of a Second to react to the ball.

Have you every done the dollar bill test where you hold your index finger and thumb at the bottom of the dollar (but not touching the bill) and another person holds the bill the same way at the top of the bill. The top person lets the bill go and the bottom person TRIES to catch the bill by pinching index finger and thumb together.

Almost impossible to catch it, same reaction time , less then a quarter of a second.

 

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Hope she is okay. Sad thing is if girls wear the face protection they have a difficult time getting recruited. I have had several D1 coaches question the masks and tell me they will not recruit a girl who ears them.

I find this funny...I'm glad I got recruited to pitch college baseball even though I wore a cup. I wasn't scared of the ball, just protecting the boys.