The NCAA Baseball Rules Committee is recommending that coaches be required to wear helmets while coaching the bases this coming season.

The committee endorsed the health-and-safety proposal at its annual meeting July 15-16 in Indianapolis. The measure, which aligns with a policy Major League Baseball recently adopted, must be approved by the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel before being implemented.

Committee members based their support on the fact that base coaches – who often are not focused on the batter, particularly with runners on base – are clearly at risk.

This past spring in fact, Oswego State coach Frank Paino fell unconscious after being hit in the head with a foul ball during a game against St. John Fisher. And last summer, a minor league coach was killed after a similar incident.

Committee members believe requiring coaches to wear helmets will significantly reduce the chances of injury.

The Baseball Rules Committee also emphasized other safety matters, including field markings. The committee believes that in some cases, fields are not being lined properly before play begins. In particular, the batter’s box is occasionally too close to home plate and the coaching box is too close to the foul line or home plate. The committee plans to outline the proper procedures for conferences and institutions to follow when lining fields to ensure proper compliance. Additionally, the committee is asking umpires to pay closer attention to field markings before starting play.

In other action, committee members continued their focus on the pace of the game and ways to eliminate down time during contests. Ultimately, the committee again decided to reinforce several rules in place to address the pace of play. In particular, enforcing time limits (a pitch must be delivered within 20 seconds with no runners on base), the batter’s box rule (the batter must generally keep one foot in the box during an at-bat), handling of conferences (defensive and offensive) and speeding the time between innings and during pitching changes were areas the committee identified as areas of possible improvement.

“This is an area that we need cooperation from several constituencies,” said Tim Corbin, head coach at Vanderbilt and chair of the committee. “We need our umpires to move the game along, and we are asking our coaches and administrators to support them in this effort.”

The committee also reviewed the baseball code of ethics, which is printed in the rules book. While not a widespread problem, the group believes in some isolated cases, unsportsmanlike acts are creating a negative image of the sport.

“We have heard reports where entire teams orchestrate actions from the dugout that are solely intended to intimidate the opponent,” Corbin said. “These actions are clearly defined in the code of conduct and simply will not be tolerated.”

Along the lines of sportsmanship, the committee also made a point of emphasis for umpires and coaches to be aware of the consequences of some team celebrations, particularly during a live ball. In some cases, players from the dugout have entered the field to support a teammate – which the committee does not necessarily view as a bad practice. However, when the ball is live, it can create a potential interference or obstruction scenario. Additionally, when a home run is hit, particularly at a critical point in the game, celebrations can create an intimidating and potentially volatile situation.

In other committee news, the group recommended Bob Brontsema, head coach at UC Santa Barbara, to serve as chair.