Face Masks In Baseball

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There are coaches, fans, also players stating, playing the game of baseball comes with risks, either the athlete can take the risk of getting smacked with a line drive to the face or do not play. This has truth behind it and I can see where they are coming from, however the safety of the athlete is of higher concern. A study done in 2004 by American Journal of Sports Medicine analyzed catastrophic injuries in high school and college baseball over a 20-year period. The data received from this study proved that pitchers hit with a batted ball was the second most common mechanism of injury, making up thirty-four percent of all of the catastrophic injuries .Officials have pushed for pitchers to wear a padded cap that inserts into the athlete’s hat to protect the front portion of the head. …show more content…
In softball there is a good majority of pitchers, and even fielders that wear these face masks for protection. If there can be face masks created for softball players, there can be protective masks made for baseball players as well. After McCarthy’s injury in 2012 he states, “We've put things on the moon before, so I feel like we could create some sort of a device that sits on your head and protects you. … It's going to be a money-maker whatever it is.” McCarthy had first-hand experience with this situation and most pitchers do not, so creating some sort of protective gear seems to be of little