Published online October 31, 2008
PEDIATRICS Vol. 122 No. 5 November 2008, pp. 1159-1160 (doi:10.1542/peds.2008-2480)

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LETTER TO THE EDITOR

High School Baseball Injuries

Ronald W. Coen, MD
Department of Pediatrics,
St Luke's Regional Medical Center,
Boise, ID 83712

To the Editor.—

I write in reference to the Collins and Comstock article¹ on high school baseball injuries. There have been many attempts to reduce injuries in both professional and amateur baseball players. The authors suggested that the way to reduce baseball injuries in young players is to have infielders wear protective helmets. To recommend that helmets be placed on infielders to protect them from batted balls is highly quixotic. Helmets would restrict peripheral vision and restrict the ability of the defensive ball player to dive for balls and also look upward for high fly balls. It is not difficult to imagine a third baseman diving to his right for a line drive only to have his helmet move into his line of vision and batter his face when he hits the ground.

It is more reasonable to recommend that high school and Little League programs restrict the use of metal bats. A study by Greenwald et al² has provided evidence that metal bats significantly increase the velocity of a ball hit by baseball professionals as well as college and high school players. Those who play the game know instinctively that a ball projected from a bat does not travel through the infield at a constant velocity. Unfortunately, there has been no study examining the acceleration characteristics of a batted baseball. Speaking from experience, the acceleration of a batted ball is most dangerous to the defensive infielder, especially the pitcher.

Major League Baseball uses only wooden bats. It is rumored that college baseball is also considering a return to wooden bats to reduce injuries. I have also heard that one state has restricted the use of metal bats in its high school leagues.

The main reason for using metals bats, as I recall, was to reduce the cost of broken bats. Today, that cost may be dwarfed by the medical costs associated with bat-related injuries.

REFERENCES

1. Collins CL, Comstock RD. Epidemiological features of high school baseball injuries in the United States, 2005–2007. Pediatrics. 2008;121 (6):1181 –1187[Abstract/Free Full Text]
2. Greenwald RM, Penna LH, Crisco JJ. Differences in batted-ball speed with wood and aluminum baseball bats: a batting cage study. J Appl Biomech. 2001;17 (3):241 –252[Web of Science]

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PEDIATRICS (ISSN 1098-4275). ©2008 by the American Academy of Pediatrics

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This Article Extract Full Text (PDF) Submit a response Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services E-mail this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to My File Cabinet Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Coen, R. W. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Coen, R. W. Related Collections Office Practice Social Bookmarking                         What's this?