A Mother's Fear
My daughter loves playing the one position I never intended for her to play...pitcher. Why did I not intend for her to play there? Because I had to play there when no one else could and was never very good at it and never really liked it or looked forward to it. So I assumed the same would be true for her. However, my daughter loves it and she seems to be better at it than I was. So, she does get to pitch. This past Saturday, in 3 innings, she had 5 balls hit right back at her. Luckily, they were all weak grounders. But my biggest fear is that line shot back at her head or right at her chest. With the bats and balls nowadays it's such a scary thought. I've thought about having her wear a gameface mask. I don't think it's that big a deal right now, but when she gets older and girls actually hit those line shots up the middle, I may very well get one. I think the trick, though, will be getting her to wear it. I haven't seen anyone in Hawaii wear one so she may think I'm crazy to ask her to put it on. Plus, she's never seen a pitcher get knocked in the head before, so it's not something she's worried about.
Labels: All About Fastpitch, fastpitch softball, pitching
posted by Stacie | 2:03 PM
5 Comments:
Hello. I just found your blog today 3/12/07 but this post caught my eye. By daughter just started pitching this year, she tried last year but wasn't too sure of herself, but this year she has a pitching coach and she seems to do well at it and she loves it. I'm right there with you worring about the line drives coming at her head. I told her the only way she was going to be able to pitch is if she wore the mask, end of story.. if she didn't want to wear it then she doesn't get to pitch.
ONLY last weekend was her traveling tournament teams 1st tournament and she was playing 1st based and right in the middle of an inning her coach told the girl pitching and her to switch spots, she got no warm up time and didn't have her mask on.. she did good but my heart stopped everytime she pitched the ball.. I told her next time that happens to run to the dug out grab her mask then go pitch, she thinks her coach will get upset with her if she did that. ~sigh~ guess I'll have to talk to the coach maybe.
KC - good to know that I'm not the only one. Also glad to hear that your daughter doesn't have a problem with the mask. Wishing her the best in all her softball endeavors!
~sigh~ guess I'll have to talk to the coach maybe.
KC, no Maybe's about it. She's your DD Tell the coach your rules about the game face, either she wears it or she doesnt pitch. its not his DD out there risking injury!
I have 2 daughters that pitch & I require both to wear the gameface. we actually require all infield positions to wear it. I wish they would have had them when I played. I was hit in the face numerous times, breaking my nose once, wish eventually shyed me away from snagging those balls.
Over the last couple years, I have seen more & more girls wearing them, even seeing them at the College World Series of Softball.
It is always better to be safe than sorry. get them started with them now & they will be use to them, get others to wear them & be protected.
ALso, after spending so much $$ on braces, I want to protect those teeth, too.
The Game Face. What are we thinking. Lets get them on all infielders at every level. These are young girls. They probably will not be playing pro ball. A little safety now could go along way. Require it at any age and we wont have to worry about how it looks.
Lets put dentists out of buisness!!
Only kidding they still have candy
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