You need one in t ball. I coached t ball about 20 years ago. Those kids are dangerous when they take their warm up swings!

Dan Iassogna got hit in the package while at first base on an errant pick off throw in 2003. I think it was at TB.

Errant pickoff throw! See!

I just could not get out of the way of a ball. I moved left, the ball moved left. I moved right, the ball moved right. It was rather embarrassing because it was not a hard shot in my direction.

Peace

I have a friend, yes only one, who was caught flat footed and took a line drive w/o a cup. He had swelling so bad there were splits in a bad spot, and the doctor told him if the swelling did not go down w/i 72 hours, they were looking at amputation.:eek:

I wear a cup all the time on the bases, behind the plate, driving to the game.

Wow, thats amazing. Same thing the doctor told me when he gave me my last perscription. Didn't realize the two sports were so similar.!!!!

:):):):) :p

Risk: Getting jeweled without a cup
Reward: AMPUTATION!

Hey DC, analyze that!

I had a friend/client...
 

yes, just one, like the other guy who was not an umpire but a coach/league president feeding the pitching machine for 8 year old machine pitch league. Kid drove one back through the box and hit my friend in the most delicate of all spots. He lost one of his boys to amputation, got an infection due to some randy/amorous activity by his wife and then got an abcess and almost lost the whole package. He still has trouble and is less than 40. He lost his job and then his wife.

I looked into a medical malpractice suit for him because the treating surgeon and ER doctors would not even take a look when he complained about severe pain in the nether region while erroneously labeling him a narcotic drug seeker. However, no other physician would testify that it was malpractice as the medical records showed and my client admitted to amorous relations with his wife before the drainage tube was removed and thus the increased risk of the very infection he had.

I am talking about this guy was in hospital three weeks and almost died and had major surgery on top of losing one of his nuts due to a baseball hit by an eight year old hitting him in the pills.

Way too risky to be on a field at any age with a hard baseball without a cup in my humble opinion.

I wear one. Do whatever you feel comfortable with.

I wear Under Armour Cup-black with carbon fibre. Very comfortable to the point that I don't know I have it on until I go to the restroom.

MTCYMMV.

Dave, you often convey a message like I would. In this case, as in several other cases, you convey it in a way that I merely wish I could.

Yet another tip of the creased black cap to you sir.

Wouldn't a real risk/reward analysis take into consideration the frequency of occurance? I cannot recall ever being hit by a ball while working the bases. I do recall avoiding being hit about a couple of times with some pretty acrobatic moves!

Yesterday, for the first time ever, I wore my cup on the bases. I was working a series of indoor games and rotating between the bases and plate. With this thread still in my mind, instead of taking it out from my plate stint, I just left it in.

It would be a really cool story if I could tell you that, this one time in my life, I got whacked in the willie and the cup saved the day. Alas, I still didn't get hit..

But it didn't cause my any problems, either. Frankly, once the game got strated I completely forgot about it. There was no sacrafice in movement or discomfort from the cup.

Maybe that was because I was wearing my "good" jock! I've amassed a collection of compression shorts and cup holders, some I like and some I don't like so much. Some just don't seem to position the cup in the right place, and others seem to let it flop around a little bit. Compression shorts seem to fit me in two sizes- too tight or too loose. On this particular day, I had on a basic jock strap, worn under a pair of moisture-wicking shorts, and that one provides the best fit as far as holding the cup where it needs to be and keeping it there.

any athletic male probably has a nut shot story or two...with any sport or activity it's really a matter of preference. I've never met a basketball player who wears one...yet one might think the risk is very high in that sport. I played middle infield my entire playing career (20 yrs) and never wore one...umpired for about 8 yrs, never wore one...just started the last couple years...I figured that my luck was running out and that I really did want to have children. While many have the 'nut shot' stories, there are probably many who have the 'never been hit' stories much like BretMan's post.

I was a sometime catcher, sometime pitcher and often-time third baseman. I never went without a cup. Never. I have also coached and instructed for many years and thrown batting practice to batters from college on down for over two decades. Even with an L-screen, I wear a cup. With some of the younger players (12 or 13 and under), there are workouts and batting practice where I pitch without a screen. I wouldn't consider doing any kind or real coaching or pitching without wearing a cup. So why would I stand a dozen feet away from a pitcher, with my feet spread a yard and a half apart, staring down the barrel of an aluminum bat being wielded by a 200-plus pound batter without wearing a cup? And I played and sparred. I know how to make something miss.

I still wear a cup, because I view the reward of avoiding amputation of my genitals as being worth the risk of a little extra skin irritation.

(Don't take this the wrong way, as I'm not trying to argue or persuade you to change your mind. I think that anyone should be free to wear any piece of protective equipment they see fit. Just take it as a me playing the devil's advocate as we kick around the subject of cups on the bases.)


Does anyone wear a mouth guard, polycarbonate safety goggles, helmet or heart guard while working the bases?

I would find the prospect of losing some teeth, an eye, having a brain injury or having my heart stopped as bad or worse than the one-in-a-million chance of losing one of the boys. It seems like you would have an equal chance of getting hit in any of those unprotected areas.

There's nothing to prevent a base umpire from wearing any of these devices. Are they not worn because they are not the norm? Are we placing our personal vanity or appearance above our personal safety?

Or, are we making the decision that the chance of injury is so infinitesimally small that we forgo the added protection?

it's probably coming...heck base coaches are now wearing helmets after neck trauma tragically killed a man.

That's cool.

Except, we are less likely to get drilled in the head because, A) our arms/hands naturally go up significantly faster in a protective movement than they go down; and , B) our duck or flinch reflex mechanism is ruled by what our eyes see and it is vastly easier to make an unpredictable bounce or direct shot miss your head than it is to make it miss your groin or midsection.