|
Good evening and thank you for inviting me to address your league. If you would like the children in your league to have more fun, develop better skills, be more successful, get hurt less often, and, because of the foregoing, play the game longer than they otherwise might, then I encourage you to consider the use of a baseball batting safety vest in your league.
Getting hit with a baseball hurts, whether you're a 50-to-75 pound nine or ten year-old child getting hit by a 45 MPH pitch or a Major League player (or youth baseball coach) who probably weighs 3-to-4 times what that nine or ten year-old kid weighs getting hit by a 90 MPH pitch. That's why some Major Leaguers wear a padded shirt under their uniform, particularly if they have recently been hit in the torso.
Relative to a youth baseball player, anything that is going to provide them with enough protection to give them the confidence they need to stay in the batter's box cannot be worn under the uniform for the duration of a baseball game. If you check out the feedback we have received regarding our baseball batting safety vest - it is posted on our website - you will see that "confidence" is the key word.
As you can probably see, set up behind me is a pitching machine that can pitch a baseball at 90 MPH. At the end of my presentation I will offer anyone interested the opportunity to get hit in the back or ribs with a 90 MPH pitch so that they can get an idea of what it feels like for a 50-75 pound child to get hit in the back or ribs with a 45 MPH baseball.
Those of you who follow Major League Baseball know that new rules were implemented a few years ago to protect Major League players by expelling and suspending pitchers who purposely throw at a batter. As a result, a Major League pitcher can now be thrown out of a game - and possibly suspended - if, in the umpire's opinion, he purposely throws at even one batter, regardless of whether the batter is hit or not. What this essentially means is that getting hit with the ball is no longer considered a part of the game by Major Leaguers – witness the probably 300+ pound Prince Fielder trying to storm the LA Dodger locker room after a game last season to confront the pitcher who had hit him with a pitch.
While simply changing the rules may work at the Major League level - where, prior to the new rules, many, if not most of the batters hit by pitches were hit purposely by the pitcher - it won't work for youth baseball since hopefully all of the batters hit by pitches at that level are not hit purposely.
In addition to the above, many Major League baseball players have started wearing an elbow/arm protector when batting. If Major Leaguers wear padded shirts to protect their torso and a protective pad to protect their elbow/arm, it makes sense for children who have not yet developed any muscle mass in their torso to wear a batting vest to protect their ribs, back and chest.
So while Major League Baseball has adapted, youth baseball hasn't, and young batters are hit by a pitch much more frequently than Major Leaguers. Why? There are several reasons. One reason is the fact that young pitchers and young batters lack the physical coordination of older children and adults. As a result, young pitchers are more apt to be “wild” and young batters more apt to lack the physical coordination to get out of the way of a wayward pitch. Add in the fact that - because the pitching rubber in youth baseball is usually located 14'6" closer to home plate than in Major League Baseball - young batters don't have much more time, if any, to react to an errant pitch than Major Leaguers, it's no mystery why so many young batters are hit by pitches.
Approximately 1/3 of the children who start playing organized baseball at the age of eight or nine have quit playing by the time they are eleven years old. Approximately 2/3 of the children who start playing organized baseball at the age of eight or nine have quit playing by the time they are thirteen years old. Conversely, if you study the roster of a sixth grade football or basketball team, and then look at that same group of kids as seniors in high school, many times the kids who were not the stars, the starters or even on the team as sixth graders have become the stars and starters as seniors.
Why the difference between sports? Many coaches, parents, league officials and former players attribute the low retention rate in youth baseball to the fear of getting hit by the ball while batting and the poor batting skills that result from that fear, especially if a player has previously been hit.
If you don't think that that plays a big part, consider the following segment from a 2003 PBS report by Jeffrey Kaye in which he interviewed John Young, who started Major League Baseball's RBI program, which stands for 'Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities":
JEFFREY KAYE: "RBI's founder is former major league scout John Young, who started the program in south L.A. in 1989. Young says even the toughest inner-city kids can be intimidated by baseball."
JOHN YOUNG: "The toughest thing to do in sports is hit a baseball. So many kids that haven't played are afraid of the ball. We get kids who come into this program, they are kids from tough neighborhoods-- they see a lot of gang violence, you know, tough kids-- but they are afraid of baseball. They are afraid of being hit by a baseball.
Need further convincing? Following is the partial text of an article from the June 26, 2004 edition of Chicago Tribune titled "Prior shows Sox who's in control" (and sub-titled "Cubs ace just wild enough in 5-inning stint"):
"The moment of truth for Mark Prior came in the third inning Friday after he knocked Frank Thomas off the plate with a 1-2 fastball that irritated the White Sox slugger. The Cubs starter followed with a curve on the outside corner that buckled Thomas' knees for a called third strike……From his first pitch, which sent leadoff man Aaron Rowand reeling backward, Prior had Sox batters wondering what was coming next, whether the strategy was intentional or not…..Early in the game I was a little bit wild, and I think it helped me over the course of the game."
Additionally, on a relatively recent broadcast of ESPN's Baseball Tonight, a Major League batter's fear of getting hit with the ball was indirectly addressed when the panel discussed Major League batters' improved performance under the new rules because they don't have to be quite so afraid of getting plunked in retaliation for an earlier hit batsman due to a pitcher's fear of being suspended.
It's interesting that in lacrosse - which has exploded onto the youth sports scene in sections of the country recently - many of the players, particularly at the youth level, wear protective gear on their torso - and seem to not only not mind it, but get a kick out of it. And this is even though no one is purposely throwing the ball in their direction. As a matter of fact, the idea in lacrosse is to keep the ball away from the opposing players.
If you follow Major League Baseball you have probably noticed the increasing number of foreign players in recent years. One of the possible reasons for this shift is that children in the United States simply have more recreational options, including other sports, than children in many other countries, and when children are presented with more recreational options, those options viewed less favorably lose out.
Is baseball viewed less favorably than other recreational options, including other sports? Many kids who quit playing baseball at a relatively young age either continue or go on to play other sports.
I, and probably all of you, will be surprised if anyone accepts my aforementioned offer at this time to get hit with a 90 MPH baseball. And that is the point: getting hit with a baseball hurts, whether you are a 50-75 pound child getting hit by a 45 MPH pitch or an adult coach who weighs 3-4 times what that child weighs getting hit by a 90 MPH pitch.
In closing I would like to say again what I said at the beginning, and that is if you would like the children in your league to have more fun, develop better skills, be more successful, get hurt less often, and, because of the foregoing, play the game longer than they otherwise might, then I encourage you to consider the use of a baseball batting safety vest in your league.
Thank you again for the opportunity to address your league.
|
