Major League Baseball trying to improve pitcher’s head protection – MLB News
Baseball is one of the most loved sports in the world and fans love to see a close contest between the pitchers and the batters. A significant number of countries have professional leagues. Major League Baseball is definitely the most followed professional
league of all.
Along with the joy it brings to the fans and players, there are certain inherent risks that are associated with the game as well. One of such risk, which is quickly becoming a serious concern, is the line drives and broken bats hitting the pitchers.
The MLB is working on reducing the chances of injury from such incidents and is currently in talks with several baseball manufacturers to develop a helmet for the pitchers with extra padding in order for them to have more protection against a line drive
or a broken bat hitting their head.
Such incidents are on the rise and MLB is concerned about it. Gary Green, the Major League’s medical director is aware of the issue and said that the MLB has been looking into the matter and is trying to come up with a solution.
“Since we started looking at the concussions a few years ago, we’ve actually been talking about this and looking for products,” said Gary. “But unfortunately there has not been any product that can withstand the impact at the major league level. And I think
the fact that we’ve had several in the last two years has really given us more impetus to see if we can get this developed quicker.”
Kevlar at the moment seems to be a material that will be tested more as it is used by military for its protective gear including bullet proof jackets. The idea of such gear is not to cover the face but to protect the head. Line drives can be hit in excess
of 100 miles per hour and such protective gear can reduce the impact to the head of such hits.
The issue was also discussed at the Winter Meetings earlier in the month in Nashville, Tennessee and general managers were briefed about the current status of the progress.
Dan Halem, MLB’s senior vice president said that if the product was ready for the next season, they will be provided to players for testing during the games. Such an additional gear will be required to be approved by the players’ association which has been
kept in the loop about the progress.
“Assuming that the liners satisfied our test, then we’ll make it available to the players this season if they want to wear it,” Halem said.
There have been recent incident where players have had serious injuries including the broken skull, brain contusion and epidural hemorrhage of the Oakland Athletics’ pitcher Brandon McCarthy who had to undergo a two hour surgery. He is expected to make it
for 2013 season’s start but things could have been a lot worse.
It is important that such additional protective gear be developed and help the players in being safer. It would be great for both the game and its players.
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