To the Editor:
I’m a nervous wreck at my grandson’s baseball games. It’s got nothing to do with his winning or losing. It’s got a lot to do with maybe seeing a kid decapitated or rendered braindead.
Little guys, some who look as though they have been newly hatched, are swinging lethal, aluminum bats all over the field. There is no designated, circled area where a practicing hitter is stationed to swing his bat. These are lethal weapons in the hands of children. All too often I have seen a bat slip from the sweaty grasp of a kid’s hands, only to make its way into the dugout or into the stands. Batting helmets aren’t enough. These tykes should be clad in full body armor.
What upsets me is the lack of organization I witness during drills, practices, and games. Coaches allow swinging bats anywhere a youngster desires. Most parents and grandparents observing the action feel the same as I do, but we do little to intervene.
Just a few weeks ago, a young baseball player wearing a helmet died because another player was swinging his bat too close to him and struck him right in the head. Parents feel that baseball is safer than football. They’d better start demanding a little more care and supervision in and around the baseball diamond when it comes to practicing one’s batting swing.
Maybe it’s time for Mike Trout, who is young enough to still remember his youthful Millville, N.J. playing days, to do a few pro bono TV commercials advocating striker guidelines for coaches and players when it comes to baseball bats in the hands of young players.
