Metal ...

[Dakota]

Anecdotal "evidence" is not evidence of anything in particular. Nonetheless, this is sad:

Injury ends prep career for UT softball signee

[Steve M]

Originally Posted by Dakota

Anecdotal "evidence" is not evidence of anything in particular. Nonetheless, this is sad:

Injury ends prep career for UT softball signee

Tom,
That's a shame for the kid. I read the article, her coach said "It all comes back to the metal cleats," Riverdale Coach Jeff Breeden said. "Before the injury, I liked us having them. But if these guys are doing a pop-up slide, they better not pop up. When her cleat hung, it broke the bones instead of rolling the ankle."

I'm going to disagree with her coach and say that this one comes down to poor coaching on how to use metal spikes.

[DaveASA/FED]

I only do ASA JO and High school ball so this is my first year with experience with metal cleats. And to your point Steve, I have seen a LOT of college games where they are performing pop up slides without breaking any bones...I think everyone is just quick to blame the new item for all thier worries, its the metal cleats, she wouldn't have gotten hurt without them. Well who knows? We can't recreate the scene, field conditions girls speed, and exact slide in plastic cleats and see if she breaks anything, or just rolls it....we will never know.

Again very sad for the kid but not fair to put the blame on the cleats. Those cleats just hang off the kids feet it is their responsibility to know how to use them.

[IRISHMAFIA]

Originally Posted by DaveASA/FED

I only do ASA JO and High school ball so this is my first year with experience with metal cleats. And to your point Steve, I have seen a LOT of college games where they are performing pop up slides without breaking any bones...I think everyone is just quick to blame the new item for all thier worries, its the metal cleats, she wouldn't have gotten hurt without them. Well who knows? We can't recreate the scene, field conditions girls speed, and exact slide in plastic cleats and see if she breaks anything, or just rolls it....we will never know.

Again very sad for the kid but not fair to put the blame on the cleats. Those cleats just hang off the kids feet it is their responsibility to know how to use them.

Absolutely, correct. However, you don't if the injury would have occured without the spikes, either. This is the type of info that should be getting collected, not just brushed off with "you cannot prove it was the spikes" responses.

[ronald]

Has anyone ever heard of something similar happening to boys of the same age?

[BretMan]

Heck, it even happens in the pros. These injuries are few and far between, but off the top of my head I remember the exact same thing happening to Davey Concepcion and Robin Ventura.

One of the grisliest injuries I ever saw on the field involved metal cleats. The third baseman on my adult baseball team went to tag a sliding runner. The runner's foot hit his glove, then climbed right up his forearm like it was going up a ramp.

The result was an eight inch long gash that looked like someone had taken a scalpel to his arm. The top layer skin split wide open and the gash was a couple of inches wide in the middle. You could see different layers of tissue and muscle under the top layer of skin.

Suprisingly, it was a clean cut and there was very little blood. Guess it didn't hit a vein or artery.

That was a one time thing. Besides a few minor cleatings, I've never seen anything to that degree before or since.

[Stu Clary]

Reading the thread title, I thought this might be a discussion about Ozzy, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Judas Priest.

I'll throw in my 2 cents anyway.

Originally Posted by ronald

Has anyone ever heard of something similar happening to boys of the same age?

That's my argument: Every baseball player around here has metal spikes on his shoes as soon as he turns 13. Why should the girls be any different?

[Skahtboi]

Originally Posted by Steve M

Tom,
That's a shame for the kid. I read the article, her coach said "It all comes back to the metal cleats," Riverdale Coach Jeff Breeden said. "Before the injury, I liked us having them. But if these guys are doing a pop-up slide, they better not pop up. When her cleat hung, it broke the bones instead of rolling the ankle."

I'm going to disagree with her coach and say that this one comes down to poor coaching on how to use metal spikes.

And of course, as the coach, he has the option to tell his players that he doesn't want to see any metal cleats on the team.

[CecilOne]

Originally Posted by Dakota

Anecdotal "evidence" is not evidence of anything in particular. Nonetheless, this is sad:

Injury ends prep career for UT softball signee

What is really sad is:
- a player feeling she let her team down trying to be safe at a base,
- more concern about the cleats than the player,
- having to travel two states away for HS games
- the college coach not being concerned