Fpitchdad ... you and I both have/had DD's who pitched at the college level. I have no doubt that yours, like mine, knows there's a lot of reasons to avoid throwing the ball down the middle of the plate, including that the likelihood of getting a ball smashed back at you increases greatly. With that being said, you know as well as I do that sometimes the ball doesn't always go where a pitcher wants it to go, especially with less experienced pitchers. We also both know that some umpire strike zones are the size of postage stamps and that sometimes pitchers don't have much choice. I pretty much saw my daughter pitch every game she ever pitched, and I would estimate she had about a dozen balls over the years that might have hit her in the head had she not caught or deflected them, and about half of them were times when the strike zone was miniscule. She probably pitched about 2000 innings over the years, and so just having a dozen back her isn't very many, right? But had just one of those balls hit her in the head, it would have been both traumatizing to both her and me. She grew up in the era of no facemasks, but I know she tells all of her pitching students today to wear them, and when she and I coach together, I know she insists both the pitchers and corners wear them. Because of the high threat of a bunt in the fastpitch game and that coaches have to ask the corners play as close in as 20-25 feet, they should be wearing them too.
I know there are a lot of people out there who thinkk it should be a choice, and should not be mandated by the various organizations. And I'm absolutely fine with this at the college level, where the players are adults. But I strongly believe they should be mandated by all sanctioning organizations and rec leagues for youth players because there are many parents out there that are ignorant of the danger.
I hate it when people start going all extreme about outlawing the game altogether, wearing suits of armor, etc. That just doesn't add any credibility to their argument.
