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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

Quote:

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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Mfgr Certification

Well, around here in Central Calif, it has been a requirement for ASA tournaments for a couple of years now that all batters come up to bat wearing a helmet with NOCSAE certification on the helmet and a separate mfgr's certification on the face mask showing that the face mask meets and was installed by the mfgr to NOCSAE standards, plus a chin strap.

slow news day in NY I take it?

Quote:

Originally Posted by wadeintothem

slow news day in NY I take it?

You ain't kidding! I kept looking at the date thinking this is some three-year old post someone pulled out of the trash.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wadeintothem

slow news day in NY I take it?

I guess that's why the article says "the last three or four years "