When you talk about helmets for pitchers, most people will think of three recent events in the MLB.  Three recent line drives up the middle that have hit pitchers Brandon McCarthy, Doug Fister and, most recently, J.A. Happ, have got people talking about it.  In the San Francisco Bay Area, this subject goes a little farther back than the McCarthy incident.

In 2010, a high school player, Gunnar Sandberg, of Marin Catholic High School, was pitching against Concord’s De La Salle High School when he was struck in the head by a line drive.  Very similar to McCarthy, Sandberg was up, walking around and answering questions immediately following the blow, but being a high school baseball game, the umpires and coaches did not take any chances and called for an ambulance.  Again, very similar to McCarthy, Sandberg had to have surgery to relieve pressure on his brain.  Unlike McCarthy, Sandberg had to be put into a medically induced coma so that he could recover from the surgery.  Also unlike McCarthy, Sandberg’s injury caused a change in California high school baseball rules, not regarding helmets, though.

In the game Sandberg pitched, metal bats were used.  Because of his injury, two leagues in the Bay Area banned non-wooden bats.  Still, when you look at what has happened in the MLB, it is pretty clear that the bats are not the issue.  Although people describe the new style metal bats as weapons because they can be swung so fast, the ball would be dangerous coming off of any bat of a player who has a strong enough swing.

It seems plain and simple that the pitchers would be better off wearing helmets on the mound, but there are a lot of things going against the implementation of helmets for pitchers.  For one, baseball prides itself on tradition, and making any rule change is like pulling teeth.  For two, pitchers are creatures of habit, and adding new equipment can change the way a pitcher prepares and throw off his oh-so-important routine.  Finally, adding a helmet would add weight to the pitchers, throwing off their balance and changing the velocity and movement of the ball.

All of these reasons should be trumped by the injury possibilities of getting hit in the head by a line drive, but the sad truth is, they probably won’t be.  While the NFL is consistently adding new rules to protect its players, the MLB is stuck in the past and will not make any drastic changes.  Don’t be surprised if someday MLB offers helmets to pitchers, but you can put money on them never being required.  There is just too much at stake that is more important than the health of the players.