My husband and I watch a lot of baseball and it seems there is a rise in the number of concussions catchers are being diagnosed with. I know there is the new concussion DL and I know that teams are being more proactive about diagnosing it. Is that all there is to it? Is there something else going on like equipment or some other thing I never would have thought of?
I know that my ability to watch games on TV has increased with each passing year, but I feel like there are a ridiculous number of times this season when I’ve been watching as a catcher takes a foul ball so hard to the mask that it knocks him back on his ass or onto his back. No idea if that’s confirmation bias at play.
I would have thought there were actually *fewer *concussions occurring today even if they’re being counted more rigorously, since helmets are better but they still get hit with a lot of foul tips.
I wonder if it has something to do with the pitchers. Do these concussions typically happen off of pitchers with especially nasty movement on their balls?
WAG: Pitchers are throwing harder than ever before. (Strikeouts and velocity have been on an upward trend for many years now.) A lot of these concussions are coming on foul tips on high fastballs; 10 or 20 years ago those pitches may have been hit more properly as “normal” foul balls or hit into fair territory.
That would be my guess as well. Previously catchers were just expected to suck it up and play ball. The debilitating effects of concussions, in any sport, are only recently being taken seriously.
I wonder if it could have anything to do with the ‘goalie-style’ masks that a lot of catchers are using these days. Being single-piece units, it seems that they remain firmly in place, and therefore transfer more energy to the catcher’s head, as compared to the ‘old-style’ masks which had a tendency to become dislodged when struck by a batted ball. Does anyone know if any such statistics are available?
I suspect we’re simply hearing about it more. Concussions have always happened, but until recently, nobody really knew about the dangers - or really cared.
I see the article is from last season. I wonder if anything has changed since they instated the rules this year about charging the catcher and the catcher blocking the plate.
I don’t know if those stats are available, but I did hear some announcers on a broadcast discussing that possibility this past season. They thought it was very possible, but also pretty clear that it was anecdotal. I think its primarily two things - the increased focus on concussions making the ones that happen get noticed more, and the increase in velocity of pitches making the foul tips more dangerous.
Is there any data that there are more, or are they just being policed and detected more?
As they weren’t being counted before, it’s impossible to say. I’m not sure we even have a solid handle on how many concussions there are NOW. You can look up how often players have been placed on the concussion-specific disabled list but a player can get a concussion and not go on the list, or get a bad one and be placed on the longer 15 or 60-day lists.