Hat or Helmet?
Several months ago, minor league first base coach Mike Coolbaugh was killed when he was struck in the neck with a line drive. Recently, the general managers of the 30 Major League Baseball teams voted to make it mandatory that base coaches wear helmets while on the field. Never mind the fact that even if Coolbaugh was wearing a helmet, he still would have died because he got hit in the NECK, I still wholeheartedly disagree with this decision. It is a classic overreaction to an unfortunate incident that is likely not to be repeated, and will not be prevented with the measures taken.
In order to be a coach on a MLB team, one has to be of relatively sound mind and able to make rational decisions in one’s best interests. Therefore, coaches should be allowed to decide for themselves what, if any, safety equipment to wear while on the field. And, while some people may disagree with this, I believe the same should be the case for players. If a batter does not want to wear a batting helmet, he shouldn’t have to. He knows the risks. If he gets hit in the head, there’s a good chance he will have a serious, debilitating injury, and perhaps even die. However, in the hundred years that batting helmets were not required in baseball, only one player, Cleveland’s Ray Chapman, ever died as the result of a pitched ball to the head. Far more have died in car collisions and airplane crashes. Perhaps MLB should outlaw all forms of motorized travel.
If MLB is going to require that base coaches wear helmets, then it stands to reason that they should require pitchers to wear helmets as well, as they are much closer to the batter and get hit with batted balls FAR more often. But why would they not do that? Because players would complain and their precious product would suffer. They can force the base coaches to wear helmets because nobody really cares what they think and the league can look like it’s doing something important for safety’s sake only, when in reality they’re only trying to improve their image because of the HUGE black eye that MLB has right now with the steroids controversy.