Is Baseball a Dangerous Sport?
When contemplating about the most dangerous sports, baseball isn’t usually at the top of every ones list.
Most people would automatically jump to American football, ice hockey, soccer or even basketball.
Usually these sports are considered more dangerous because of the amount of physical contact and you’d be right.
Looking at the numbers provided by the Consumer Product Safety Commission in 2009.
Sport related injuries for athletes ages 5 to 14 were highest amongst football players with 215,000 resulting hospital room emergency visits.
While basketball came in second and baseball third with 170,000 and 110,000, respectively.
But, lets take a step back and examine the dangerous elements of the game of baseball.
Baseball is most definitely a dangerous sport. Especially when you look at the higher levels. Most pitchers can throw upwards of 100 miles per hour.
Also, hitters can smash baseballs over 100 miles per hour.This makes positions close to home plate inherently dangerous. However, most injuries result from over-use of specific joints or poor technique.
I did some research into what the dangers are associated with playing the game of baseball. Some of this information may or may not surprise you.
Also I’ll talk about the steps being taken to help prevent some of these dangers.
Lets dig!
What are the obvious dangers of baseball?
Hit By Pitches.
Most people know that pitchers throw hard especially the older and stronger they become.
This day in time players are being pushed year round in youth baseball to throw with higher velocity.
Here are some average velocities of pitchers at different ages.
- 12 years old: 55-60 mph
- 15 years old: 70-75 mph
- 18 years old: 83-88 mph
- Division 1: 86-92 mph
- MLB average fastball: 93.2 mph
What does this mean?
You guessed it, less reaction time for the hitter at home plate.
This means the hitter has less than half a second to recognize the pitch out of pitchers hand and determine if its going to hit them or not.
Sometimes, players cannot move out of the way fast enough and ultimately get hit by the pitch.
To help prevent these potentially career altering injuries hitters wear different pieces of protective gear.
These guards are made from hard plastic and use Velcro straps to stay in position. They protect the most vulnerable parts of the body that don’t have much muscle to already protect.
Common hitting protective guards:
Line Drive Hits.
Have you ever wondered how hard baseball players have to hit the ball for it to travel over 400 feet?
Exit velocity is a term given for how fast a baseball propels off a players bat. Players can reach exit velocities of well over 100 mph.
This makes reaction times for players close to the hitter very short.
A line drive is referred to the trajectory of the ball leaving a bat that is hit so hard it comes off in a straight line.
When these line drive hits occur, they don’t allow infield position players much time to react and putting them possibly in harms way.
Pitchers are especially vulnerable to line drive hits because they are less that 60 feet away from home plate.
There have been multiple pitchers which have been hit in the head from these types of hits.
There are now companies out there making baseball hats for pitchers with built-in hard shells for protection from line drives.
Collision between players
Collisions can be extremely dangerous and can happen anywhere around the field.
Outfielders can collide while sprinting towards each other trying to catch the same fly ball. Often times at speeds of over 20 mph.
These types of play can leave players with broken bones, bloody noses and concussions.
Collisions can also happen around the bases.
This normally happens when the ball is thrown to a position player who is covering a base. He will be waiting to receive the ball and tag an advancing runner.
Catchers are especially vulnerable to this type of collision because they are trying to prevent runners from scoring.
Base runners in youth leagues are normally required to slide into home plate. This technique is preferred to avoid the chances for hand, head and neck injuries.
In Professional baseball baserunners are not required to slide into home and catchers can block home plate as long as they posses the ball.
There are many close plays at home plate putting catchers in harms way. For this catchers wear protective gear covering head, chest and from their knees to ankles.
What are the not so obvious dangers.
Sport Specific joint overuse
Baseball, just like many other sports, uses many of the same movements time and time again.
Take a moment to think about this.
Many major league pitchers throw upwards of 100 pitches every start during the game. That’s 100 times they subject their arms to the stresses of throwing overhand.
Those 100 pitches don’t include the pre-game throwing and the pre-inning warm ups.
This will put them over 200 pitches on a single of a start.
Now take that number and multiply that over 20 starts per season or more. And multiply it again by the number of years they have been playing.
Your talking about an amount of throwing a baseball you can’t even begin to put a number on.
Tommy John, which is a surgery that effects the elbows of baseball pitchers, is very common place around profession baseball.
At one time it was said that 25 percent of professional pitchers have had this surgery during their career.
The surgery is the reconstruction of the UCL ligament on the inside of the elbow.
This normally places a pitcher on the injured list for at least 1 year and with no guarantees of returning.
Position players aren’t immune to the same injury, usually a couple every year.
Frequency of these types of injuries has made off season conditioning and arm strengthening programs a must.
Also many starting pitchers are being purposely held under a certain number of pitches every start.
The idea is to keep the wear and tear on the pitchers arm down and increase his longevity over his career.
Tipped Foul Balls That Hit Catchers
A foul ball that comes off a hitters bat can go in any direction, but the kind that hits the catcher can be particularly dangerous.
Catchers wear protective gear that helps protect the most vulnerable areas subject to foul balls.
Foul balls to a catchers face mask is one of the greatest dangers to a catcher. Foul balls glancing off a players bat can hit a catcher at over 100 mph.
Catchers on the receiving end of a foul ball can suffer what’s known as a concussion.
Concussions can cause immediate health problems as well as long term effects.
A Few Common Symptoms of Concussions:
- Confusion
- Headache
- Dizziness
- Nausea or vomiting
- Memory loss
The impacts of foul balls to catchers has caused major league baseball to implement concussion protocols that mimic what you would find in the National Football League.
MLB has in place a 7 day injured list for players who may experience concussion type symptoms after suffering a head injury.
Several companies (such as Force3ProGear) have created masks that help absorb some of the force created by the impact.
They utilize shock absorbers and strategic padding to lower the risk for sustaining a concussion by up to 75 percent.
Sliding into bases
Sliding is a technique performed by a baserunner when approaching the next base.
The baserunner will drop to the ground, either on their stomach or backside, allowing them to use the friction of the ground to slow them down.
Most often this technique is performed when trying to avoid being tagged out by a defensive player.
Players are taught from a young age how to slide.
Where sliding becomes dangerous is when the speed of the game pushes you to perform this action in a narrow window.
Sometimes resulting in a late slide.
Late sliding or poor technique can lead to injuries of the ankles or knees.
Head first sliding can result in neck or face injuries, but the most common are broken fingers or jammed wrists.
Players have hand protectors that can be worn while on the base paths to help combat some of these scenarios.
The hand protectors look similar to an oven mitt and have built in supports to keep their fingers and wrists from injury.
Dangers off the field.
Dangers off the field aren’t necessarily directed towards the players. Fans can also be at risk for sustaining an injury while watching a game.
Two of the main dangers to fans are foul balls and thrown bats.
Baseball fields use protective netting that surrounds the back of home plate and down both base lines. The netting usually travels out past first and third base and then ends.
Under most circumstances this amount of netting will keep fans and objects such as windows or cars safe from flying baseballs or bats.
There have been rare occasions where a bat or ball will travel outside of these protective nets and injure fans.
MLB and other smaller divisions of baseball have begun extending these safety nets further down the base lines to combat some of these instances.
Final Thoughts
Although baseball can be a dangerous game, that shouldn’t deter anyone from the sport.
There are plenty of protective equipment options out there that can prevent the most common of injuries within the sport.
Now get out there, throw the ball around and have a good time.
