Posted by: skip (piks5@sbcglobal.net) on Thu May 31 04:35:16 2007

> > My son has been hit twice with a ball , both injuries requiring 64 stitches to his mouth and 33 stitches to his right (pitchin) hand.
> > Because of increse speed and velocity of the ball when batters use a aluminum bat , along with the shorter distance to the fielder especially the Pitcher, makes using these bats in TeeBall and Little League ( In my opinion) accidents waiting to happen. As we saw in
> > Wayne NJ where one player died after being hit in the chest with a ball hit off an aluminum bat. BTW, parent of the next Derek Jeeter, the major's DONT use aluminum bats
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> Danny. You might have to have your kid play the outfield as a suggestion. Because if more kids learn rotational hitting properly at an early age more kids will get hurt which is a consequence of playing an infield position. To often we forget that the majority of kids have not developed the motor skills necessary to field at the increased velocity levels of a well struck line drive or sharp ground ball by an advanced hitter who should perhaps be graduated to the next level.

George, With all due respect, you are wrong. Kids aren't getting hurt because they're too un-co-ordinated to field the pitcher's position. They're getting hurt because in the last few years youth baseball has been flooded with techno-bats that generate significantly higher batted ball speeds. The balls get to the pitcher quicker, but improvements in human reflexes have not kept pace with profit-driven advances in metallurgy.
My son is a very adept fielder, about as good as it gets. And already this year he has twice been barely able to defend himself against techno-shots.
Adult slo-pitch softball pitchers have time to scutttle backward towards second base before the techno-shots rocket through the box. Since we can't afford little kids the same courtesy when they throw overhand, how about we provide them with L-screens during the game?

Skip