[greymule]

Six or seven years ago, I was leaving the park after umpiring and stopped to watch a youth league game. I don't know whether or not it was official Little League, but it appeared to be boys 10 to 12.

Every batter who came up was wrapped in a pad from his underarms to the top of the thighs. After that kid batted, the pad would be put on the next batter.

I asked the coach how he liked the pad, and he said he hated it. However, every once in a while, somewhere in the country, a kid around that age gets hit in the chest and his heart stops, so the league mandated the use of the pad.

The pad obviously constrained the kids' ability to swing the bat freely. Why play the game at all under those conditions? Why not use wiffle balls and plastic bats on a big soft mattress of a field? No running allowed. Any collision between two players on the field causes a stoppage of play and a checkup by a doctor to guard against any and all negative possibilities.

On the other hand, if it were my kid whose heart had been stopped by a pitch, I guess I might think differently.

You're right, Freix. How did we survive? No ear flaps in baseball. No bicycle helmets. And we got to shoot .22 rifles at summer camp. (Funny, to my knowledge not one of those campers ever grew up to shoot anyone.) One year in college I used a cap liner for a helmet. (It was legal then.)

Virtual baseball. Everybody has a joystick. Nobody gets hurt.