The NCAA News - News and Features

The NCAA News -- April 12, 1999

Sports Sciences Newsletter -- A discussion of the baseball bat issue related to injury from a batted ball

By Randall W. Dick
NCAA Senior Assistant Director of Sports Sciences

Participation in sports requires an acceptance of risk. One critical piece of information in the sport of baseball concerns the length of time a pitcher has to react to a batted ball.

Following his release of the ball and follow-through, a collegiate baseball pitcher is approximately 54 feet from the impact point where bat meets ball. Research indicates that the average time to react to a ball hit from that distance is approximately 0.4 seconds. The ball-exit velocity that matches this reaction time is 93 miles per hour.

Ball-exit velocities from metal bats currently in use in collegiate play have been measured from 103 to 113 miles per hour, translating to a reaction time of 0.357 to 0.315 seconds at a distance of 54 feet. Therefore, there is a window of time during which a collegiate baseball pitcher could be vulnerable to being struck by a batted ball.

To be weighed against that analysis is information that baseball has a relatively low practice and game injury rate compared to the other 14 regular-season sports currently monitored by the NCAA. Additionally, from 1993 to 1998, the NCAA Injury Surveillance System (ISS), which samples 10 to 15 percent of schools sponsoring a sport, has shown that game injuries to pitchers impacted with a batted ball remained steady at 3 percent of reported injuries requiring medical attention and restricting participation or performance for at least one day.

Data collected over the 1997-98 season in Division I, however, show that the frequency of pitchers impacted with a batted ball is greater than might be expected from the ISS data. Surveys were distributed to athletic trainers at each Division I institution sponsoring baseball (273 schools) in January 1998 in an attempt to quantify the frequency of pitchers impacted by a batted ball.

There were no minimum injury criteria; if the pitcher was unable to react to the ball and was hit, the incident was to be reported. Batted balls that were deflected by the pitcher's glove and did not contact the body were not recorded. Following data analysis from 88 schools that initially reported and from a follow-up sample of 30 schools that did not initially report, it was projected that there were approximately 375 incidents of pitchers impacted with a batted ball that occurred in 1998 in Division I games.

While a majority of these impacts involved minimal injury, 30 percent required some missed time, and 11 percent required a physician's medical attention. The frequency of such occurrences was greater than might have been anticipated in the ISS data, but was explainable by the window of vulnerability that appears to exist in the current college game.

At its June 1998 meeting, the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports continued its review of this issue and issued the following statement: "The NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports is very concerned about the potential of serious injury from batted balls in the sport and supports research in this area.

"We are very pleased to see the bat manufacturers and administrative bodies coming together to address this issue in an objective and expedient manner. It is our hope that this combined endeavor will promote increased safety for the student-athlete."

SUMMARY

Research indicates the existence of a window of vulnerability of approximately 0.04 seconds to a baseball pitcher reacting to a batted ball. The risk for serious injury during this time is difficult to quantify; however, it has happened, and there is a potential for it to continue to occur as indicated by an estimated 375 pitchers struck in games this past year. NCAA umpires have responded to the reaction-time issue by modifying their positions in a three-person umpire crew. Collegiate women's softball has eliminated use of titanium bats because of similar concerns. The NCAA Executive Committee changes are consistent with these concerns as well as re-establishing a competitive balance between offense and defense.