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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
 
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