It was impossible to keep New York Yankees pitchers out of the headlines this week.
The dust had barely settled on CC Sabathia’s 2am altercation with some loose tongued hecklers outside a Toronto night club when rookie Bryan Mitchell was smashed in the face by a line drive travelling at the speed of sound on Monday night.
The sight of Sabathia’s pink trainers is almost as painful as the crack Mitchell took in the second innings against the Minnesota Twins.
While fans and officials alike pretty much turned a blind eye to CC’s handbags moment which las-ted all of 20 seconds before he was bundled in a car – “I just flipped out, they caught me at a bad time” – the sight of poor Mitchell being escorted from the turf with only a blood soaked towel for comfort has once again raised safety concerns for the timeless game.
Facing a fast bowler hurtling a cricket ball at your head at 90mph is surely one of the scariest prospects in sport.
Yet having a baseball thrown even quicker – eight pitchers have broken the 100mph barrier this year – with far less protection is perhaps even more daunting.
Giancarlo Stanton, the Miami Marlins’ $325 million man, was smacked in the face last season.
Mitchell, who was concussed following a gym accident less than a month ago, was simply unable to react quickly enough when the ball flew from Eduardo Nunez’s bat at 103mph, hit the brim of his cap and busted his nose.
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“It’s scary, only 60 feet away and the ball is coming back 110 or whatever miles an hour,” said infielder Brett Gardner.
At the start of last year following a spate of similar incidents, MLB introduced the option of a padded cap for pitchers. Problem was, it was double the size and weight.
The new cap has the padding on the outside and is bit lighter than the first version. Yet the fact only Alex Torres, of the San Diego Padres, wears one proves how unpopular it is.
It wouldn’t have helped in this case though. Only a facemask, the likes of which are worn by college softball players, would have spared him some agony.
Following the tragic death of cricketer Philip Hughes, many players have opted for extra protection at the back of helmets in the exact area where the Australian was fatally hit.
Nevertheless, Monday’s events at Yankee Stadium has got people talking once again. More protection in an age where litigation and lawyers lurk every corner will surely happen sooner, rather than later.
But, as with all sports, today’s players are bigger, stronger and more powerful than ever. Helmets for pitchers?
“I do not see why it would change the game,” said John Anderson, a baseball coach from the University of Minnesota. “It’s personal preference. Every player who steps on the field is taking some sort of risk.”
In college baseball, aluminum bats rather than wooden ones are used which annoys major league scouts in particular.
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The cost of replacing broken bats can be huge. Yet the speed balls fly off the metal bats is quite something. Scouts despair – ‘can he do the same with wood?’ – while safety is compromised.
“I worry more about youth baseball, where different ages and the physical development of the kids is so different. In the youth levels of baseball, some are much larger, (more) physically developed at the same age or within a year or two age span that, playing against each other, you worry a little bit about the physicality, “ added Anderson.
While Mitchell was nursing his nose and convalescing during a week on the sidelines, Sabathia was groveling for forgiveness after footage of his early hours confrontation with some loose-tongued hecklers in the early hours of last Sunday flooded all over social media.
The hits, however, just kept on coming.
On Friday night in Detroit, a woman sat in the stands was blasted in the face by a line drive. Not long afterwards, a broken bat flew out of the dug-out and into the seats behind.
Is no one safe?
