Little Leaguer Killed by Pitch

And they say baseball isn't a dangerous sport. What a truly unfortunate, fluky way to go especially at that age.

saw this yesterday,, cannot imagine the family, the pitcher. So sad for all involved

I can't prove it, but it seems to me that more freakish accidental deaths in LL have occurred in the last 30 years than in the previous 30. I'm not sure why.

I do know that in the 50s and early 60s when I played all the kids came into LL with 1,000s of hours of vacant lot ball experience. We weren't as big as today's kids but our eye-hand coordination and skill levels were much higher by age 10 because we weren't tied to organized adult supervised play. We played every day on our own.

The fatalities I've read about were all chest hits. That tells me that the batter either had poor eyesight and was picking up the ball late; or, he had slow muscle reaction, which comes from a lack of practice at an earlier age than 13.

In fact, if your child is 11 or 12 and wants to take up baseball for the first time I'd advise against it. It's too dangerous for someone who hasn't developed the muscle memory needed to react instinctively.

I don't know the numbers either Zachary but it could just be that the news is more easily accessible so we hear about it more now.

Either way, sad sad story.

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I don't know the numbers either Zachary but it could just be that the news is more easily accessible so we hear about it more now.

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availability heuristic for sure

can I get a definition for the simple minded?

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availability heuristic for sure

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definitely this. But I think there is some merit to what one of the previous posters said about kids nowadays being bigger and stronger, but since they aren't outside playing all the time, they aren't developing the right skills to protect themselves better in these types of situations.

What a terrible situation. I just cannot imagine what it must be like for everyone involved to go through that. The famlies, the pitcher, the coaches the teams just terrible to happen all around.

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Basically, because there is more info out there and info spread so much faster now, we hear about this more, but it doesn't necessarily mean that is actually occurring more frequently.

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A good example of this is it seems like we have a lot more serial killers around today, when in reality, it's been proven they were a lot more common place before advanced police techniques.

When I first read "Little League," I didn't think 13. In Baton Rouge, the divisions were 13-14, and I think that's pretty standard. The mound in these leagues was less than 60 (54 when I played). Some of those pitchers who were 14 were grown-arse men and way too developed to be pitching from 54 feet against 13 year olds.

I'm a decade removed from all this, but I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case here. I feel terrible for everyone involved.