With the hazard of pitchers being struck in the head by line drives, the MLB has been in the process of creating a padded yet efficient cap for pitchers. It looks as if the Blue Jays were modeling them and taking them for a spin.
Todd Redmond, modeling the new protective caps for pitchers. He and others I spoke to aren't fans. #bluejays pic.twitter.com/DnbvPtMrQA — Barry Davis (@SNBarryDavis) April 18, 2014
The caps haven’t been made mandatory or even been mass produced as of yet, but with the dangers of a head injury to pitchers, it seems likely that these caps will one day be mandatory. The issue with the caps is that most pitchers don’t like the feel of the cap and it throws off the natural motion of pitching they have perfected since childhood.
According to BusinessWeek, the number of serious injuries that have occurred from line drives aren't as frequent as we think, but they can have devastating impact.
“The only player to die from an injury sustained on the field is Ray Chapman, a batter hit by a pitch in 1920. Direct impacts are occasional but ugly. In 1957, Cleveland Indians pitcher Herb Score was left with fuzzy vision and a shortened career after taking a hit in the right eye. Two years ago, Brandon McCarthy, then with the Oakland A’s, had to have surgery to relieve an epidural hemorrhage after being hit in the head.”
If this is the cap of the future, the pitchers of the MLB should watch some of the devastating occurrences when the ball comes back and hits a pitcher in the head. It may be bulky and it may alter the way the baseball is thrown, but it is much better than having a pitcher get hit and having lifelong damage to their heads.
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