SALON

Jon Bowen

Monday, Apr 5, 1999 7:00 PM UTC

Batter up!

A Consumper Product Safety Commission study shows that many Little League injuries could be prevented by using softer baseballs.

By

Topics:

This week, at baseball stadiums all across the United States, fans are filing into their seats to observe the divine American ritual that is Opening Day. Thousands of kids are watching as the first batter steps into the box to battle the first pitch. And later, in Little League parks everywhere, those same kids will step into the batters box and pray to God they dont get whacked in the face with the ball.

According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, more than 137,000 children ages 5 to 14 were admitted to the emergency room with baseball injuries in 1996. About 50 percent of youth league injuries are facial, and 85 percent of facial injuries are caused by the ball. But a new study shows one way to mitigate the damage — a softer baseball.

Dr. Paul Vinger of Tufts University and colleagues at the University of Virginia performed a study to examine “reduced injury factor” (RIF) balls, which are 20 percent softer than major league balls. Opponents of the RIF ball had claimed that the softer ball actually would increase the risk of injury by penetrating deeper into the eye socket. To test that theory, Vinger shot the two types of balls, at various speeds, into a model of the human eye socket. The RIF ball did penetrate deeper, but the penetration was offset by its reduced impact. The findings of the study are published in the April issue of the Archives of Ophthalmology.

“You can expect two kids per game to get hit,” Vinger says. “The softer ball causes less pain, less injury. A major league ball can fracture the skull at 50 miles per hour. The RIF ball has to be going much faster [to do the same damage].” Vingers team is recommending that all Little League teams adopt the softer ball.

Right now, Little League officials condone–but dont require–use of the softer ball. “Its available to any local league that wants to use it,” says Mike Wright, volunteer coordinator for Little Leagues U.S. Western Region. Each local leagues board of directors determines which ball their league will use. Only about 10 percent of the 6 million youth league baseballs now in play are RIF models. “There are no plans at this time to mandate the use of softer baseballs in any level of Little League play,” said Lance Van Auken, director of publications and media relations at Little League Baseball international headquarters.

Some coaches argue that the softer ball would destroy the integrity of the game. To the purists, Vinger says, “We had semipro pitchers in our study who couldnt tell the difference [between the RIF and the harder ball]. If it looks the same and feels the same and plays the same, whats the difference?”

Very little, evidently — until you catch a wild pitch in the face. It seems the best advice for Little Leaguers, for now, is to hope for low fastballs.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Paul Krugman’s right: Austerity kills. "In an economy where we’re all in the same boat, one person’s spending is another person’s income. So when the government cuts spending, it reduces people’s income, leading to less business, more unemployment, and a vicious spiral of slowing down the economy."
248 points249 points | 227 comments
vote
FBI reportedly joins Bachmann campaign finance probe
241 points242 points | 17 comments
vote
Jon Karl makes things worse: He regrets “inaccurate” Benghazi email but says his story based on it “still entirely stands.” Really. ABC News?
209 points210 points | 31 comments
vote
“Jodorowsky’s Dune”: The sci-fi classic that never was.
76 points77 points | 16 comments
vote
Austerity Kills: Brian McArdle, a 57-year-old man who had had two strokes and could barely walk, was found "fit for work" by a government subcontractor, and had his benefits stopped. He died the next day.
72 points73 points | 6 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations