As you read this, you’ll probably blink at least once. While you were blinking, a 95-mph fastball has traveled 48 feet from the mound to home plate.
That’s the kind of speed professional baseball players have to face every time they’re at bat. Because of that, they are required to wear a helmet to protect their head.
But what about the pitchers?
A 95-mph fastball flies off the bat at over 100 mph.
So why are they allowed to stand only 60 feet, six inches away from the batter without wearing any sort of protective head gear?
It’s a question being faced not only by Major League owners and coaches, but one now being discussed by the coaches and parents of younger players, from Little League to high school.
Since 2013, seven Major League pitchers have been injured by line drives to the head, traveling at, well, eye-blinking speed. The injuries have varied from concussions to fractures, but all have resulted in time on the disabled list.
The latest pitcher to join the club was Yankees starter Bryan Mitchell, who was smacked in the face with a line drive off the bat of Minnesota Twins batter Eduardo Nunez during a game Aug. 17.
Mitchell was sidelined for only a week with a small nasal fracture. The Yankees activated him on Aug. 28, and he pitched an inning and a third against the Atlanta Braves.
Mitchell was lucky.
The situation could have been a lot worse. He could have wound up like Arizona Diamondbacks’ pitcher Evan Marshall, who recently spent two weeks in the hospital after he was struck in the head on Aug. 3 while pitching in a game for Triple-A Reno.
Marshall’s situation was so bad he had emergency surgery to reduce the swelling in his brain. Reports said his doctors weren’t sure if he was going to make it through the first night.
But three weeks later, Marshall walked into the Diamondbacks clubhouse and shook hands with his teammates. He even tried to convince team doctors that he could make it back before the end of the season. Realistically, he probably won’t be back until 2016.
For the Diamondbacks, it’s an all-too familiar situation.
Before Marshall, starter Archie Bradley suffered a blow to the face back on April 28 in another similar incident. In Bradley’s case, he was out almost three weeks, but went on to make four more starts before succumbing to a shoulder injury.
Pitchers risk their lives every time they step on the mound. They are armed with only a glove and, while it does offer some degree of protection, it won’t protect them from a line drive to the head.
The question is: What can the league do to protect its pitchers?
Major League Baseball is still trying to answer that question, but many feel that pitchers should be mandated to wear a protective hat every time they take the mound.
Start with Little League. Chandler American Little League President Jon Ladd said that’s the best way to get players adjusted to the new headwear.
“It’s going to affect the pitcher’s performance until they get used to it,” Ladd said. “So there will be some growing pains.”
But, Ladd added, he doesn’t see any good in the hat that’s already been designed. In fact, only one pitcher in MLB, Alex Torres, is wearing a protective hat.
Torres started wearing the hat in 2013 when he was a member of the Tampa Bay Rays. It started when Torres came in to relieve his teammate of the time, Alex Cobb, who had to be removed from the game after taking a line drive to the head. Torres told reporters at the time that the image of Cobb laying on the ground holding his head has stuck with him ever sense.
The padded hat that Torres wears was designed, in part, by former Diamondbacks’ pitcher Brandon McCarthy. But McCarthy, who needed brain surgery after being struck in the head with a line drive in 2012 when he pitched for Arizona, still doesn’t wear the hat when he pitches.
He even mentioned on Twitter last year that the hat is “not ready” when asked what he thought about MLB’s design for the cap.
Ladd said the hat doesn’t protect the face, where most injuries occur.
“The pitcher’s face is always turned toward the plate,” Ladd said. “It would be great if they could find a solution other than wearing a catcher’s style mask.”
Ladd makes a good point. Still, some protection is better than no protection.
If the right solution presented itself, Ladd would be all for it. Said Ladd:
“If somebody had a solution to make it safer, we would definitely try it.”
