Baseball Is Dangerous

Baseball is not really a contact sport.  Not in the same way that football, basketball, or hockey are contact sports.  But baseball is a dangerous game.  From minor injury causing incidents like getting spiked on a slide, or getting hit with a pitch, to much more serious incidents.  A few years ago Mike Coolbaugh, a minor league hitting coach, was struck in the head by a foul line drive and died in route to the hospital.  That incident led to the rule that all on-field coaches wear batting helmets while in the coach's boxes.  Then last week, minor league manager Luis Salazar was struck in the face by a foul line drive while he was standing at the rail of the dugout.  He suffered multiple facial fractures and lost his left eye.  In all likelihood, major league baseball will come up with some sort of protective measure to ensure the same thing does not happen again.  My guess is going to be a rule that coaches and players in the dugout area must be inside the dugout rather than outside it, and perhaps some sort of protective netting or barrier to protect those inside the dug out.  Most, if not all, major league dugouts have a protective screen at the top of the dugout steps to protect players in the dugout.  However if you ever watch a game, most of the players stand draped over that fence right in the line of fire.  It gets worse during spring training when many coaches and players actually sit or stand outside of the dugout.

That became very evident today when the Tigers played the Cardinals at Joker Marchant Stadium.  Jim Leyland, Gene Lamont and others were sitting outside the dugout when Lance Berkman's bat slipped from his hands and went spinning toward them.  They successfully dodged the bat and Leyland handed the bat back to Berkman.  Then, in Berkman's next at-bat, it happened again.  This time the bat struck Rafael Belliard in the arm.  In a moment of spring training comedy, Berkman handed Jim Leyland a catcher's mask before stepping into the box for his third at-bat.  Although the moment was funny and had the fans cracking up, it showed another reason why baseball can be a dangerous sport.  Most of the time, the game is most dangerous for those not paying close attention to the game.  Fans, coaches, players in the dugout are generally the most likely to fall victim to flying objects.  In fact, there are signs in most ballparks warning fans to pay attention.  All ballparks now have netting behind home plate to protect the fans there from foul balls.  Even some little leagues require players to wear flack jackets to protect them from line drives.

I don't love to see the game change, I was totally against base coaches from wearing helmets, just like most players were against wearing batting helmets when they were first introduced.  I have since gotten used to the fact they wear them, but I miss the open dugouts, and I fear for changes that will take away, not only from the fan experience, but also from the players experience.  In the 100 plus years that baseball has been played only one player has been killed by a pitched ball. This happened in 1920 when Ray Chapman was struck in the head by a pitch.  It took baseball 30 years to institute the helmet rule.  The only other player to die from a baseball injury happened in 1909 when Doc Powers ran into a wall chasing a pop-foul.  He died from surgical complications weeks after the incident, and today we still have ballparks without padded outfield walls.  Hopefully MLB doesn't react to rashly and put netting over the dugouts or some such thing, instead they need to provide some education to the players.  If a hitter in the batters box can get out of the way of 98 mph fastball, then players and coaches who are paying attention to the game should be able to get out of the way of a foul ball.  I believe that incidents like those that happened to Luis Salazar and Mike Coolbaugh are freak accidents that can occur any time, any place, under numerous circumstances.