I asked a friend who’s a huge hockey buff about this, and he said that back then no one took slap shots, and it was considered bad form to shoot anywhere near the goalie’s actual face (as in you’d get beat up). I don’t know that that makes the activity “safe” but it does seem a LOT les dangerous than the thought of a goalie playing today’s brand of hockey with no mask. Then some guy started shooting slappers, and they started wearing masks.

Don’t pitch against metal bats at any level. Make those wimps hit like Teddy Ballgame hit.

Love the story about the drunk, off-duty cop pulling his gun because the Halloween haunted house gave him a fright. I’m waiting though for Mothers Against Armed and Drunk Police Officers to comment.

Cop can’t handle scary haunted house, pulls gun on chainsaw man, then proceeds to lie about incident. Suspended WITH pay. “Just following policy” statement in 3 … 2 … 1 …

Gutsy call Frank. That means the Phillies win a Game 7 in Yankee Stadium. I’ll go with the Yanks in 7.

/sometimes you need a break from being agitated

Oh, well. I call Phillies in 7.

Baseball convention is to measure the speed of a moving baseball in miles per hour. I can think of nothing more nonsensical than this measure. A baseball never travels a mile and it never takes an hour to get where it’s going. I advocate measuring baseball velocity in feet (or meters) per second. Even better than that is reaction time. The networks finally started introducing reaction time in this year’s playoffs. We learn that a fast pitch gives a batter about 0.375 seconds to react, a slower pitch above 0.400 seconds. That 25/1000 of a second can mean the difference between a swing and a miss and a homerun.

For pitchers, you are correct, it is even more dire. The batted ball’s velocity can exceed that of the pitch, the pitcher is about 10 feet closer (roughly 50 feet away) so the reaction time is decreased by 16.6%. The pitcher is often not ready for a comebacker and is virtually defenseless.

Take this opportunity to study the delivery of the various pitchers you’ll see in the World Series. These are the best of the best. I guarantee you that you’ll see a clear majority who finish their pitches off balance and not in a defensive position. There clearly is a reward in this behavior, the risk of being beaned by a batted ball judged so minimal as to not warrant giving away this advantage.

The psychology is such that as a pitcher, you don’t want to start the delivery believing the batter will hit the pitch. And having the thought of assuming a defensive position influences the delivery and the follow-through, to the point that it might affect accuracy and velocity.

The danger is definitely always present, but it is rare — rare enough that it is all but ignored at the MLB level.

“It seems like it can be more accurately predicted when the ball will come back to you than the hitter has.”

It might just be me, but it is not that easy. As a fielder, like a shortstop or outfielder, one can assess the posture and timing of the batter and make a reasonable guess that the ball will go this way or that, but the pitcher simply has less than 0.250 seconds to figure this out AND react.

I mean, yeah, but pitching is an incredibly complex biomechanical process. That’s sort of like asking a figure skater to wear football pads — it might protect them from injury, but it would totally destroy the sport.

Absolutely it takes less time for the ball to come back but by that point your glove should already be in position so that it only has to move a few inches.

I’m sure there’s some truth to that — a pitcher sees where the pitch itself is headed, and the brain instantly starts anticipating what will happen next. But still, pitchers don’t hold a glove up in front of their face as soon as they release the pitch. The general idea is to finish the pitch in the sort of “ready” position you see other infielders using, so you can react to the ball wherever it is hit (on the ground, off to your side, in front of the mound, at your face, what have you). You want to be able to react to anything, not to one specific type of hit.

Technically speaking doesn’t the pitcher’s reaction time start the moment he releases the ball? Absolutely it takes less time for the ball to come back but by that point your glove should already be in position so that it only has to move a few inches. This is coming from a non-baseball player who is actually curious.

I don’t doubt that it is the most dangerous position to be in but reaction time doesn’t seem like a factor. It seems like it can be more accurately predicted when the ball will come back to you than the hitter has. And it doesn’t need quite as much timing accuracy as your trying to let the ball come to you (like a bunt) instead of trying to have your bat/ball arrive at the same place at the same time.

My knowledge of the difference between aluminum and wooden bats is limited to the comments here and at volokh, but wouldn’t the difference, however big or small, be rendered insignificant if the proper protective equipment were in use?

If successful, the lawsuit could result in a marginal reduction in ball speed as manufacturers adapt to limit their liability. So what? You reduce the energy of the ball by a few percent, big deal. The ball still has enough energy to cause serious injury to an unprotected head. Wear a helmet designed specifically to attenuate the impact of a baseball traveling at over 100 MPH, and the risk goes down far more significantly.

28 | Cynical in CA | October 26th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
Baseball pitcher is the most dangerous position in all of major sports, way more dangerous than NASCAR driver, NHRA driver, etc.

Oh, yeah? Try javelin catcher.

;P

Hah, you must not have seen that episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Baseball pitcher is the most dangerous position in all of major sports

Yeah people talk about the incredibly precise reaction time required to hit a ball. Try catching a ball flying at your face, from 6-10 feet closer than the rubber-plate distance, and at a velocity 10-20 mph higher than you threw the pitch at. I’m just amazed we don’t see more gruesome injuries than we do.

When I pee, I unzip my fly and pull my penis out of the side of my underwear, not through the front flap.

/self-disclosure

I am a baseball fanatic, I pitched as a kid, my kid pitches … I struggle with this dilemma of loving the art and science of pitching and how ridiculously dangerous it is.

When my son gets home from school today, we are going to work on assuming a defensive posture as soon as the pitch is delivered.