Baseball question

[starkvegasdawg]

While watching the braves game tonight their third base coach got drilled by a line drive. He was hit in the arm but the announcers said shots like that was why the line coaches started wearing batting helmets. That got me to thinking-why aren't pitchers required to wear a batting helmet? The batters have to to protect against a 95mph fastball but a pitcher is fine with no protection against a 120mph line drive? Makes no sense to me.

 

[Sumralldawg]

Most likely because pitchers have gloves and they are looking toward batter while a base coach is looking at runners etc

 

[57stratdawg]

I think it would rattle around while you're pitching. Never worn a major league helmet though, so..

 

[CochiseCowbell]

 

[starkvegasdawg]

That may well be the case, but assuming a ball is coming back at 120mph and after the delivery the pitcher is 57 feet from home plate the ball will reach him 0.32 seconds. That is three tenths of a second to realize you are about to take one off the bean and be able to either move your head or get your glove up...almost impossible to do - especially if you have an exaggerated followthrough. I had not considered 57's theory of the helmet not being steady on your head and shifting but I do think they could come up with something. Not saying this is something they should do but I just thought it odd that they make the batter and baseline coaches wear one but not pitchers since they are the closest to home plate (aside from the catcher) and have the highest chance of getting hit in the head with a line drive. I do believe that has happened at least once this year in MLB already and maybe back in college this past season too.

 

[Hump4Hoops]

Never thought about that

But I can see your point. Would need to have something that does not impair peripheral vision, and won't move around at all, though.

 

[SanfordRJones]

Helmets on pitchers won't work, but it won't be long before something like this is being used universally.

 

[AlanDawg]

When I played high school ball, a teammate of mine had broke his jaw and cheekbone in a car accident. He also happened to be a pitcher. His first several times back on the mound after surgery to repair his face he wore a type of catcher's mask. He said it didn't really effect his pitching he just hated wearing it because he looked like a goob. He would take it off as soon as he could after the pitch/hit. Maybe the MLB will eventually go to something like that.

Also in slowpitch softball I have seen numerous pitchers and infields wear mask to protect against line drives and bad hops. Obviously we are dealing with a different athletic skill set and the mask wont get in the way of a softball pitchers motion. Some pitchers even go as far as to wear shin guards.