What kind of chest protector...
 

...allows for an ump to be knocked cold like that?

Toadman,

WTF are you talking about?

JM

LLWS game. PU got hit by a foul ball in clavicle and was KO'd. If you watch the slow mo replay its clear as day he lost consciousness. Seriously, the first report from the EMT was that he had a pulse. He didn't move for about a minute but then finally came to and was able to start talking. A few minutes later he was helped off the field.

Either a poor fitting one, a cheap one or both.

Heck, it could have been a West Vest Platinum if he wasn't wearing it right.

JM

An ill-fitting hardshell of some sort. A lesson to us all ( at his expense ).

Lock into your position, and see what bony parts are exposed. Then cover them. It's great to have pro gear, but you really need it adjusted properly for it to work.

And I don't believe a collarbone hit knocked him out. I haven't seen it, but it must have gotten him in the neck or something too.

JM

I can remember back when I was playing what we called Little League, we were having some batting practice and one of my teammates got hit on the elbow with a pitch. The pitch wasn't very hard, but he blacked out for about a minute.

Pro-Nine?

Any luck at finding a video clip?

I may be the minority, but I'm not watching the LL games. To post as if all of us are commenting pitch-by-pitch only causes confusion.

Thanks for letting us know what you're not doing. Keep us posted.

The point is that the OP is so vague that it took someone asking what he meant for any reasonable answer to be given. How hard would it have been for him to mention LLWS somewhere in his post, instead of making a statement that assumes we were either watching what he was watching or reading his mind?

How do you get knocked cold by a Little Leaguer?

I am not so sure he got knocked out cold but, I remember saying to my wife that that, was a similar shot that I took last year and convinced me to get a West Vest.

The ball seemed to get behind his throat protector and it wasn't clear what it hit.

Some of those kids are throwing in the mid 70's, which is about the speed a lot of high school varsity pitchers throw. Plus, they're much closer at 46'.

The pitches are shown being equated at over 90 mph at the shorter distance.

The distance has (almost) nothing to do with the force the ball imparts. 70 mph is 70 mph, whether thrown from 46', 60', 250'

(Clarification: A ball thrown at 70 mph from 250' will slow down more than a ball thrown at 70 mph from 46'. So, by the time the ball hits the target, it will be moving slower and impart less force. Someone else can do the math. The difference between 46' and 60' is not going to be significant from a practical matter in this case.)

Some of these 'kids' are bigger than the umpires.

What kind of chest protector.
 

From the replay, it looked like it was a pitch that was fouled back and bounced off the chest protector upward and caught him in the jaw. I can see why he went down. He will be back doing another game tonight.

It appeared that the ball hit him in the side of the neck. The ball hit him on the sholder and deflected to his neck. They showed the replay again today... the umpire actually verbalized "foul" before hitting the deck. I had a varsity catcher this year block a ball in the dirt (he was wearing a HSM by the way...) the ball hit him in the neck, he stood up to get the ball and dropped like a ton of bricks. He was out cold.

I just saw a replay and it looks like the ball got in under the throat protector and hit him in the throat.

Several of the umpires have taken shots. Sometimes the ball is going to find you; however, it's very important to wear pro gear. That way when the ball hits where it's suppose to you are protected.

Steven do you understand when the use "equivalent speeds" they are talking about reaction time of the batter? It has nothing to do with speed at all.

----

I happened to be watching this game when it happened. The umpire appeared to have the ball deflect off his chest protector and hit him in the throat/jaw area. It could have happened to a lot of us but this guy was on TV.

-Josh

Rise Ball
 

Some folks can fire a cannon that appears to float though the air for longer periods of time than others thrown at the very same speed. Gravity and spin can't explain it all, but drag and lift can.

Now assuming both balls will come to a stop, some folks will say the two balls slow down the same amount, 70mph to 0 mph. But I know what you mean about their deceleration.

In related news, Reds prospect clocked at 105 mph.
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big...urn=mlb-265783

I think a pitch does lose significant velocity over those added 14 feet (from 46' to 60'). I can only guess how much, but even a 10 percent reduction would greatly affect the force at contact.

I'm puzzled at the mph estimates, too. Aren't change-ups in MLB in the 70s? (When the catcher flips the ball back to the pitcher, the scoreboard still shows speed in the 50s or 60s.) I thought that while 90 mph might be a decent fastball, 80 mph was just batting practice.

greymule,

On average, a pitch will lose 1 mph for every 7' it travels.

JM

On average, a pitch will lose 1 mph for every 7' it travels.

Good to know. Thank you.

Okay rocket surgeons, let me put a bottom line on this one.

It really doesn't matter the speed of the ball hitting your chest. I got my heart rhythm messed with when getting nailed wearing my waffle protector in a 9/10 game. Little kids almost killed me.

Wear pro gear, and make sure it fits you properly.

Over and out.

Me, I'll wear my Platinum until the new All Star comes out. Although the Schutt looks interesting.

Growing up, when considering careers, I couldn't decide between rocket surgeon and brain scientist and ended up becoming neither.

For what it's worth, I had a more of a problem than most umps with getting hit on the top of the shoulder. Maybe I lean forward more. I found the All-Star to give the best shoulder protection (next to my old 1969 balloon).

Before radar guns, the U.S. Army set up elaborate measuring devices and timed Bob Feller at 98.6 mph (average, not fastest) speed across the 60-foot distance.

I don't know so someone tell me. At what point does a radar gun measure the speed, when it leaves the pitchers hand, or when it arrives at the plate, or just some average in between?

Difference between 60.5' and 46' would, I think, be miniscule.

It is all fairly irrelevant, because it appears the ump was hit in the neck ultimately.

I worked the gun for several summers of scout ball, and I worked the gun for a handful of D-I games this year. So I've gunned about 200 college pitchers and college prospect pitchers who threw as high as 98 m.p.h., and generally lived in the high 80s/low 90s.

When you aim it from a low angle, you get your reading near his release point. But when you aim it from a high angle, you can put it where you want it. When a guy who throws 90 m.p.h. lets it fly, it's going 90 out of his hand and for the first few feet. But at the 30 ft. mark, you can register an 87 or 88 on the same pitch that the guy next to you registers a 90 out of his hand. At a point approximately eight or 10 feet in front of the plate, it's 85 or 86. So, that would mean a 90-m.p.h. fastball is traveling at about 84 or 85 when it reaches the plate.

A two-seam fastball breaks down faster. I clocked a guy this year who throws a two-seam hard sinker that clocks at 91 and 92 consistently. It's going 83 or 84 when it reaches the area in front of the plate.

So, based on those experiences, a high-velocity fastball slows down on average about one m.p.h. every 10 feet, but it's obviously slowing down more in the last 30 than the first 30.

The gun measures it as it breaks through the beam, and it is solely dependent on where it's pointed.

Also, there are occasions when you aim it too close to the hitting zone and you register the bat. A college level stud swings a bat 110 m.p.h. or more on their best cuts.

Remember also that the gun has to be straight on. If it's hitting the pitch at an angle, it will register lower. You have to divide your reading by the cosine of the angle to get the true speed. If you're 10 degrees off on a 90 mph pitch, the true speed is actually 91.4; at 20 degrees off 90 = 95.78. If the gun is 90 degrees off, all pitches register 0. A chip can be programmed to do practically anything, so maybe some guns are designed to take the angle into account.

At the Iowa State Fair 25 years ago (when I still had an arm), I threw as hard as I could at a booth where a guy was holding a radar gun. I kept registering 63 and told the guy that was impossible—63 is the speed of a throw from the catcher to the pitcher.

All this guy could say was, "That's the reading." However, when I asked him the highest reading he had clocked that day, he said it was 64, by two Iowa State University pitchers. (I doubt that their coach would have approved.) So I assumed his gun was faulty until I learned that the angle was critical. The guy manning the booth was sitting in a deck chair well off to the side.

We're always behind the plate. And sometimes it's right on the field, if it's a scrimmage of some sort.

Hope he gets a season in before its time for ole Tommy John.

He got in the game tonight - 8th inning in an 8 to 2 game. Struck out the first batter and got two ground outs. Something like 10 out of 11 for strikes. Touched 102 on the gun.

I was listening to the WLW postgame and they were giddy like little schoolgirls over this guy.

Just don't let Chapman watch the video of Zumaya or Strasburg.