Helmets

[Bassman]

http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/114726.html

The changing face of softball for WNY girls

More players seeing game through cage-style helmets

By Janice L. HabudaNEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 07/07/07 8:57 AM

Thirteen-year-old Bailee Gallivan has been playing softball pretty much her whole life, but she’s been stepping up to the plate the last three or four years with a “cage” batting helmet protecting her head and face.

“It actually is pretty comfortable, and I can see fine,” Bailee said.

The batting helmet with face guard is becoming a common sight on diamonds in Western New York and elsewhere, as youth leagues look to lessen the risk of serious injury.

“If you have to protect one part on their body — it’s their head and their face,” said Graidi Keleher, trauma nurse coordinator at Women and Children’s Hospital.

So far, the face guard is showing up only in girls’ fast-pitch softball leagues, not in boys’ baseball leagues. Although some say the risk is the same, others say that other factors — notably the different distances between the pitcher’s mound and home plate — make softball batters more susceptible to the kind of injuries the face guard is meant to protect.

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