TUESDAY, Feb. 4, 2003 (HealthDayNews) -- Using softer baseballs and batting helmets with face guards could make a safe sport even safer.
That's the conclusion reached by researchers from the University of North Carolina (UNC) and Little League Baseball Inc., in a study appearing in the Feb. 5 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
"We found a reduced risk of injury in people who used safety equipment," says study author Stephen Marshall, an assistant professor of epidemiology and orthopedics at the UNC's Injury Prevention Research Center and School of Public Health in Chapel Hill.
Marshall and his colleagues studied Little League data from 1997 through 1999, including 6,744,240 player seasons. During that time, 4,233 injuries were reported to Little League's insurance carrier. Marshall says there were likely more injuries than this, but they weren't serious enough to warrant medical attention.
Forty five percent of the injuries, or 1,890, were ball-related injuries, including batted, pitched or thrown balls. Facial injuries were much less frequent. Only 2.7 percent, or 183 children, reported a facial injury at bat or running the bases. The researchers also found the risk of injury increased with the age of the children.
The researchers report that safety baseballs, which are softer than regular baseballs, could reduce ball-related injuries by 23 percent and the use of batting helmets with faceguards could reduce facial injuries by 35 percent for the 2.8 million Little Leaguers in the United States.
Despite this, he says, many parents still resist the use of this equipment, particularly for older children.
"Many parents like the idea that their child is learning to play the sport the way it's played in the pros and the way they learned it," says Marshall. "They have a strong feeling that children should learn to play with standard equipment and get to know how much it can hurt."
However, Marshall says, getting hurt can really be discouraging for children when they're learning how to play a sport.
Dan Kirby, director of risk management for Little League Baseball Inc. and a co-author of the study, agrees, and says besides keeping kids safe, safety equipment can actually improve a child's game.
"Safety equipment can be a confidence booster in younger age groups. If you get hit with a softer ball, there's not as much of a lasting impact," he says. "Children might be more likely to learn the proper skills because they're not worried about getting in front of a softer ball."
Another concern, particularly in older age groups, is the feeling that safety balls don't play like regular baseballs. Marshall says that's not necessarily the case. Safety baseballs come with varying degrees of softness, but they're all constructed differently than regular baseballs to lessen injury. He says in previous studies, when balls weren't marked, players had a hard time telling the difference between regular and safety balls.
Kirby says the very soft balls don't bounce like regular baseballs, but that these are generally used for play with younger children. The researchers found that safety balls were used in T-ball divisions in 85 percent of the leagues surveyed.
Cost probably isn't a great factor in a league's decision, Marshall says. He notes that safety baseballs don't cost much more than regular baseballs and that face guards probably add about $8 to $12 to the cost of a batting helmet.
Kirby says since many leagues provide all the safety equipment, kids won't balk at wearing them if everyone else is. If your child's league doesn't provide face guards, he says you can certainly purchase one yourself. Kirby says Little League recommends the use of safety baseballs and face masks, but doesn't require them because the risk of injury is so low.
More information
To learn more about baseball safety, visit SafeUSA or the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
