| ASA/NYSSOBLUE |
Sat May 09, 2009 09:59pm |
I 'm a Firm Believer In....
...face masks for the P, 3B, and maybe 1B...
Worked a PONY 12U today, and first game I had the plate, and it was pretty darn good game - two pretty decent pitchers, excellent catchers..was actually better than a lot of the JV crap I have had this year :D! Anyways, about an hour into a 1:20 time limit game, we actually in B5! 'Home' team had a runner on 1, when the B hits a SHOT right up the middle, which glances off the P's cheek. I immediately call dead ball - R1 as past 2nd, so placed her on 3. The P, of course, immediately breaks out in tears, both sides coaches go out to help her, etc,etc... my partner & I, rightly or wrongly, stop the clock for ten minutes, as the kid is looked at. She calmed down very quickly, ice was put on it - and she returns to pitch! Everybody applauded, and I give her a nice big 'thumbs up'. she actually pitches just as good, until.....there's ANOTHER shot up the middle! The kid deflects this one, but at this point she loses it...and quite frankly I came pretty close too! She comes out, and her RP gives up the game ending runs... After changing for the second game, I went over to the kid, and made sure she was OK....she had calmed down by this point, so everybody was happy...
I ABSOLUTELY now see the need for the masks for kids...and maybe anybody else playing FP. One parent said, that the $50 investment is worth it - esp wen the kid has $5,000 in braces on!
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