Over the years our society has changed drastically, and never has this more evident than in sports. Take for example the pitcher, Brandon Patch, from the Miles City Mavericks: A young man who died tragically after being hit in the head with a batted ball.
His tragic accident was ruled to be caused by an aluminum bat hitting a ball at such a speed that he did not have the proper amount of reaction time to move out of the way. The courts have now ruled that the bat manufacturer was at fault even though the bat had all of the proper specs.
While his death is an example of the risks involved with sports, when does it become someone’s fault and not just an accident?
For more than 30 years now, metal bats have been part of the game of baseball. Only a handful of these freak accidents have taken place in that time. In the same time frame there have also been tragic cases with wood bats, because inherently, baseball is a dangerous sport.
When a ball traveling at speeds of up to 100mph meets a bat traveling the same, a very violent collision takes place. This is part of the appeal of the game, the rockets coming in too hot for a third baseman to handle or the pitcher whose throws overpower his opponents.
With millions of kids and adults playing baseball all over the world, the vast majority of them using metal or composite bats, there isn’t an epidemic of bat related deaths. These reports are incredibly rare and though they are tragic and heartbreaking, they should not be used to set precedents.
Is it the bats fault that it did what it was supposed to do, inside the sanctions of the governing body? At what point does the athlete take on the responsibility? When does it become the parent’s fault for signing them up for a sport in which risk of injury is very high?
Though technology has increased the performance of sporting equipment, there are still guidelines that they have to adhere to. If a bat is performing at the level it was designed to and has not exceeded those limits, does a player not assume the responsibility once he takes the field with the agreed upon equipment? Doesn’t joining a league with a standard set in place for bats and balls automatically make you aware of the bats potential performance?
Do we really need another warning put on bats and balls that lets us know “this will hurt if you get hit?” Now we are so inundated with warnings everywhere from the Surgeon General to our McDonald’s coffee cups. I think I can say with much certainty that everyone knows the danger of getting hit with a baseball or tackling someone. I see a day when everything, from the balls we play with to the shoes we put on our feet, will have a warning attached. “Sports are dangerous; participate at your own risk!”
What do you think? When a player is injured, who’s responsible?
Source: The Associated Press
While I basically agree with this article’s points, I want to start by saying that my heart goes out to any parent whose child is killed or permanently injured playing any sport. As a parent of three children who participated in competitive sports, I know what it’s like to see your child laying out on a field after getting hurt. Some of the more serious injuries my kids have suffered include heat stroke, knee injury, mild concussions and a broken nose. I don’t want to imagine what it would be like to have one of my children be killed; however, I’m not going to keep them from playing sports because that’s a possibility.
The question was asked “who’s responsible?” That’s hard to answer. I encouraged my son to play baseball, but not football. I didn’t tell him he couldn’t play football, I just didn’t sign him up or push him to play. Why, because I know several people who have had serious injuries playing football, and I know my son. If he really wanted to play football, I would have let him.
Playing sports has inherent risks, and as a parent, I exercised my judgment and took the risks into account. I didn’t blame the coach or the league when my daughter had a heat stroke that could have easily killed her or caused permanent brain damage. Even if one of those things had happened to her, I still wouldn’t have blamed them. You don’t expect a 10 year old playing recreational soccer on a day when it was in the upper 70’s to have a life threatening experience, but it happened. Whose fault was it? Nobody’s; stuff happens, and it’s not always good.
In the case of a pitcher being killed or seriously injured by a batted ball, as sad as it is, it’s a possibility every time a pitcher takes the mound, and it can happen with a wood bat as well as a metal or composite bat. Does this make the manufacturer responsible? Unless the bat is defective or the bat was made to exceed the bat safety certification standards, I don’t think so.
For that matter, why blame the bat? It’s not the only component that goes into the equation. There’s also a ball, a batter, the pitcher, the field, the pitcher’s glove, the pitcher’s cleats, the pitcher’s hat, the pitcher’s jersey, or the parties responsible for the bat performance standard.
- What if the ball was juiced?
- What if the batter had been using steroids?
- What if the pitcher had been using steroids?
- What if the pitcher was sick?
- What if the pitcher needed glasses?
- What if the pitcher had slow reaction times?
- What if the condition of the mound inhibited the pitcher’s movements?
- What if the sun, or lights, or a camera flash distracted the pitcher?
- What if the pitcher’s glove was too small or too large?
- What if the pitcher’s cleats got hung up?
- What if the pitcher’s hat blocked his view of the ball?
- What if the pitcher’s jersey was the wrong size and it hindered his movement?
- What if the bat standard allows the bat to perform too well?
- What if the bat had been tampered with?
Some of the things I listed are very improbably, but they’re all possible. I don’t know the facts of the specific case that this article referred to, but apparently the bat performed within the standards. If that’s truly the case, it’s hard to see how the bat manufacturer was responsible.
I my mind the much more serious problem is that our society has become so averse to risk and so intent on making somebody else responsible if something bad happens. We all pay a price when a business is successfully sued for a significant amount of money for producing a quality product that performed as it was intended to. The effects of this case are not known yet, but there will be negative consequences that affect everyone associated with baseball.
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