After yesterday’s bit on protective gear and how it can encourage hitters to get plunked with potentially dangerous consequences, I did some more reading on it, and there’s another issue I hadn’t considered: batters wearing protective padding may encourage pitchers to act more dangerously.
For example, see this:
Bicyclists who wear protective helmets are more likely to be struck by passing vehicles, new research suggests. Drivers pass closer when overtaking cyclists wearing helmets than when overtaking bare-headed cyclists, increasing the risk of a collision, the research has found.
While I’m not sure how much stock to put in it, it does raise a point: if you assume that pitchers generally don’t want to injure the hitters, but elbow protection and other protective gear makes hitters more aggressive about being in the zone, that may be compounded when pitchers now feel freed from any responsibility to not bean a batter — because armored, they can take it. More balls in and off the plate, even more plunkings — and the strategy evolves.
tangotiger | 17-May-07 at 11:48 am | Permalink
Hockey fans are well aware of this issue.
The “protection begets recklessness” is often the reason that helmets, then face shields, etc were/are resisted at the NHL level.
And that fighting is condoned, otherwise other retaliation (stick infractions) would take its place.
AP | 17-May-07 at 6:19 pm | Permalink
The bicycle study is bad science. A researcher already in the habit of advocating for helmet-less riding measured his own behavior. Finding out that this person rides closer to cars when he both wears a helmet and knows the tapes are running doesn’t mean that helmets are dangerous.
Evan | 18-May-07 at 8:34 am | Permalink
In fact, hockey is so aware of this problem that they’re relaxing the instigator penalty for next season, allowing players more freedom to start fights unprovoked in order to reduce injuries to skilled players.
There was a reason no one ever hit Gretzky when he played in Edmonton in the early ’80s. Players knew that if they did hit Gretzky, Dave Semenko would skate over and punch them in the face.
Tom | 21-May-07 at 9:31 am | Permalink
My immediate thought was hockey as well. It has long been accepted that cages and face shields, especially with younger players learning the game, have increased the acceptability of carrying your stick up high, dramatically increasing the chances of a stick to the neck and above. back in the days of no face protection (or helmets at all), sticks were kept down.