My dd just threw her last collegiate pitch. She has worn a mask for 15 years including college. She has thrown more than 100,000 pitches to batters in both games and practices over that time. She was only hit 4 times and only once was a glancing blow off of the mask. She had many near misses that were way to close for comfort.
The percentages are in her favor but the results of being wrong are catastrophic. We are not talking about a spike scar, we are talking about serious injuries ranging from concussions to blindness. A ball to the face can easily damage the orbital bones. (They are the tiny bones that surround the eye that allow it to rotate.) These are very fragile and damage can result in focus problems or even blindness. Why would you play those odds when a mask can be worn with no effect on the game?
As for all the college coaches that didn't recruit my dd because she wore a mask, the coach that did, appreciated her 31 career wins.
Insist that your dd wear a mask when she is on the mound or playing in at the corners. It will take us a decade to get the sanctioning bodies to require it, please don't wait. You do NOT want to hear from the emergency room doctor that 'we'll have to wait to until the swelling goes down to see if her vision is affected'. That will be the longest two weeks of your life.
The percentages are in her favor but the results of being wrong are catastrophic. We are not talking about a spike scar, we are talking about serious injuries ranging from concussions to blindness. A ball to the face can easily damage the orbital bones. (They are the tiny bones that surround the eye that allow it to rotate.) These are very fragile and damage can result in focus problems or even blindness. Why would you play those odds when a mask can be worn with no effect on the game?
As for all the college coaches that didn't recruit my dd because she wore a mask, the coach that did, appreciated her 31 career wins.
Insist that your dd wear a mask when she is on the mound or playing in at the corners. It will take us a decade to get the sanctioning bodies to require it, please don't wait. You do NOT want to hear from the emergency room doctor that 'we'll have to wait to until the swelling goes down to see if her vision is affected'. That will be the longest two weeks of your life.
