Well, the times will be a changin soon
 

This is the URL for the FED rules survey:

2010 NFHS BASEBALL RULES QUESTIONNAIRE Survey

Or:

NFHS | NFHS 2010 Spring Sport Questionnaires

Along with all the other things in the survey, there are two questions of interest for this thread:

Part III- Would you be in favor of:

2. Mandating wood bats only for high school competition.
3. Mandating dual-flap batting helmets that meet the NOCSAE standard on all pitchers.

I am for wood bats, and against helmets, but with the way things are going in this country and it's drive for a no-risk world, it would not surprise me if the lawyers decided NFHS should mandate helmets with face masks for pitchers in the near future.

And if the chair of the FED rules committee is correct, as he stated in a recent post that "While high school baseball is one of the most safe team sports there is in high school, 80+% of what injuries they have are to the lower extremities (legs, knees, ankles) and 80+% of those injuries occur during sliding..." we will see some rule changes about that too.

BTW, one other part of the FED survey:

Would you be in favor of:

1. Eliminating the allowance of head first sliding.

ESPN running that play 400 times since it happened last weekend is not a good thing for the game...

It came really close a few years ago to add helmets for pictures, but there was someone that helped talk them out of that reality. I think they will change the bat before they change the rule to make helmets be worn. But then again states will probably override the NF anyway as wood bats will cost money and might be harder to produce. Let alone all the people that will claim it will affect the environment. Time will tell I guess.

Peace

No, some of the most beautiful plays involve a head first slide, and also you get some of those at first base that are very effective.

I do like the idea of wood bats, its getting really dangerous for pitchers.

But, cost effective? Don't know if the schools will go for it.

Thanks
David

They toned down bats with BESR.

In 2012 they're getting toned down more with BBCOR.

If they mandate wood someone will STILL get hit in the head with a batted ball.

Helmet? Heck, mandate an L-Screen.

I have always felt they should quit screwing around with bats and use restricted flight baseballs instead....a lot less pricey....
Hey! Nerf FED Baseball!

JJ

The baseballs, depending on their endorsed use, do have different CORs already.

Dumb down the ball too much and we'll be moving fences in so players can hit HRs.

Pictures of what?

So that everyone will feel better. :D

Peace

I come from a background where you have to prove your information. Just saying that going to wood would eliminate injuries is silly. That is why I agree with your statement here.

Peace

I don't know that anyone has said otherwise. The question is would players get hit with the same frequency and severity with wood bats as with metal bats? Unfortunately we don't have accurate stats about this at the youth, HS and college level before they went to metal.

Local Tragedy(s)
 

Freak Softball Accident Results in Man?s Death, Teenager Collapses at Basketball Game | Loudoun Independent

Saw this on he news tonight. Ironic that we've been talking about it.

On the tv news it said he was hit more below the ear than throat. Whatever......

And this was softball.....hey, it can happen.

Sad.

Here's one that wouldn't have happened with metal bats
 

I was there last night. It was scary:

Boy hit in head by broken bat at Milwaukee Brewers game - ESPN

Ever play softball with a Red Dot? Those suckers are as hard, if not harder than a baseball. I don't know why they call those rockets softballs.

MLB Brains on Steroids
 

MLB millionaires continues to thumb their nose at the issue while hiding behind a small statement printed on the back of every MLB ticket. MLB and it's commissioner refuse to support a safe alternative. Both broken bats and foul line drives will continue to injure numerous MLB fans each year. MLB can easily mandate some cheap 10 foot netting to extend from each dugout to the backstop netting already in place to put a stop to these senseless injuries. The clock continues to run on MLB ...