Took an absolute line drive off the head. Yikes. Scary stuff

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/mlb/aroldis-chapman-to-have-surgery-for-facial-fractures?ymd=20140320&content_id=69700372&vkey=news_mlb

Saw that today. It was awful!!! I think I saw that they called the game. True?

Saw that today. It was awful!!! I think I saw that they called the game. True?

Here's the video of the incident.

http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/26663408/v31593793/cinkc-chapman-struck-by-liner-leaves-on-stretcher

Scary stuff. The look on his teammates faces says it all. Good call on not finishing the game.

[This message has been edited by Ag_07 (edited 3/20/2014 3:56p).]

He got smoked!!! Some sorta face/head protection cant be too far away!

Terrible, terrible, terrible. Tough to see.

Thoughts with him as he works to get back up and going.

There was a man in a striped shirt that got on the cart with him. Anyone have an idea who that may be?

Side note- Gotta be a tough feeling for Salvador Perez, who hit that ball. Keeps swinging hard, bubba. Just tough luck all around.

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There was a man in a striped shirt that got on the cart with him. Anyone have an idea who that may be?

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His dad, who was watching in the stands. He jumped onto the field when it happened. Be like watching your kid get shot in front of you.

Is this idea feasible:

Build a thin foam padding (think airbag) into the sides of the pitchers cap and below the bill. Attach a sensor that register where the ball is traveling. After the pitcher releases the ball, the sensor activates, and if it senses the ball within a foot of cap, the padding inflates to cushion the blow.

I understand the 3 toughest parts of this would be developing a sensor, creating an airbag that won't snap the pitcher's neck, and deploying the device within the 1/1000th of second it would take to register the ball before it hits the pitcher. Other than that, seems feasible, right?

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He got smoked!!! Some sorta face/head protection cant be too far away!

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It does a sure that there won't be any metal/composite bats.

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and deploying the device within the 1/1000th of second it would take to register the ball before it hits the pitcher

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I'm not an engineer, but I imagine this would probably be the most difficult part of your proposed plan

I like it, I like it a lot. But be careful not overthink it, Ackar.

It's frustrating to me that pitchers are unwilling to wear a modified hockey goalie style mask. Of course it would look weird, but that could work. The most simple solution is almost always the best

Just wear a (modified) regular hockey helmet and visor.

It'll still hurt, but it'd help keep things from breaking.

[This message has been edited by TXAggie2011 (edited 3/20/2014 11:38p).]

Pitchers would never go for it. The danger is so minute. How many times a season does an event like this happen? How many pitches thrown? They have a greater risk of a car accident. We don't wear helmets to drive our cars.

They have a better chance of getting in a car accident, but not a car accident that's going to result in a skull fracture and require major surgery. I don't think it should be mandatory, but I'm pretty sure I would want to wear one and if I was GM, it would be pretty heavily encouraged.

Here's the helmet they're allowed to wear this year:


It looks like the goal of the thing was to look like a regular baseball cap instead of the goal being to protect them. Seems like this happens at least once a year.

That's great but it doesn't protect their face

That's kind of my (poorly illustrated) point. They ended up with a poor design because their goal was to make it look like a baseball cap because that's the only thing pitchers said they would consider wearing.

"What if he shot me in the face?"

"That's a risk we were willing to take."

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They have a better chance of getting in a car accident, but not a car accident that's going to result in a skull fracture and require major surgery.

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Not every one of these incidents requires emergency facial reconstructive surgery.

Yes, we absolutely cringe when this happens. But the pitchers won't risk their livelihood to minimize the risk to a one in a million occurrence.

Figure 150 pitches per game x 162 games a season = 730,000 pitches per regular season. Add the playoffs and spring training and it is a minuscule chance.

Even the ones that don't require surgery are pretty severe injuries though. Happ didn't have to have surgery last year, but he was unconscious for 11 minutes... that's just not healthy.

Also, if you figure that a pitcher gets hit once a year (just MLB, not counting minor leagues), the odds of it happening to a particular starter aren't that astronomical. Yes, each team plays about 1500 innings, but over 60 - 70% of those innings are distributed among 5 or 6 guys.

I don't think it should be mandatory, but I think it's definitely worth the investment to give pitchers a good option for a helmet. Of course it's all a moot point if the pitchers refuse to wear anything that looks a little goofy at first.

The key is something that can protect the face and head without affecting pitching. Good luck with designing that though.

I pitched for 6 years, caught 3 different line drives directly in front of my face.
If you use correct form, when you finish your pitch you are in a defensive stance.

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I pitched for 6 years, caught 3 different line drives directly in front of my face.

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Unless you're pitching the majors you can't compare. The balls are being thrown harder and hit way harder.

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The key is something that can protect the face and head without affecting pitching. Good luck with designing that though.

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Agree 100%. If you're making millions of bucks a year, no way you accept anything that might affect it negatively. I really don't think it is a goofiness factor. Just their ability to perform and be comfortable in their own skin doing it. If they feel uncomfortable, they won't get to work like they want to.

As the ol' saying goes, "if you look good, you play good." Pitchers are probably the biggest adherents to this.

Wow that helmet looks really stupid.

For several decades, batting helmets were staunchly resisted (even after baseball saw the death Ray Chapman).

They're now part and parcel in the game, even though I would categorize the risk of being hit in the head as pretty low. (although its gotta be higher than a pitcher being hit in the head.)

J.A. Happ, Brandon McCarthy- that's at least 3 within the last calendar year.

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I pitched for 6 years, caught 3 different line drives directly in front of my face.
If you use correct form, when you finish your pitch you are in a defensive stance.

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Maybe, but **** still happens.

In high school I got hit in the face from a line drive in one of our cages. There was a one loop tear in the L screen net that was right at eye level where we would pitch from a knee. A line drive from a metal bat at 25 feet completely shattered my nose. I popped right back up only to pass out 5 seconds later. I did get some sweet plastic surgery for my nose though. It won't be long before pitchers have helmets