Is the Cooperstown Baseball Tournament Safe for Players?

I recently opened Facebook and read about a kid taking a ball to the head at a Cooperstown baseball tournament and needing to be airlifted to Albany. In the post, the dad says the doctors told him that his kid’s ear literally saved his life.

Last year, I heard about a 12U pitcher taking a ball to the head at Cooperstown and requiring emergency surgery where they removed part of his skull to reduce the pressure.

I know that Cooperstown is a wonderful “once in a lifetime” tournament and both kids and parents come back raving about the experience, but it seems just a matter of time before a kid dies from one of these injuries.

Is It Safe to Pitch at the Cooperstown Baseball Tournament?

I’ve spoken to a high school coach and a former professional scout, who told me in all their years around the game, they can’t remember seeing one pitcher hit squarely in the head with a batted ball. Yet in the past year, I’ve heard of three separate incidents of pitchers taking balls to the head at Cooperstown.

While baseball may be one of the safest sports in general, there’s a heightened risk of brain injury that occurs when the following factors are present:

• Puberty. As anyone who has a 12-year old knows, some players are big. It is not uncommon to see kids over six feet and brawny. Usually teams are lucky to have one of these kids, but the stacked summer tournament teams can resemble a juco squad with size from one to nine in their order. And I don’t know if I’m just not remembering correctly, but it seems like the “big” kids today are far more muscular than they were when I was that age, perhaps because of better training regimens.
• Smaller fields. The smaller 50-70 diamond gives pitchers less time to react to a batted ball as compared to the 60-90 fields kids start to play on in the fall of their 12U year. While the extra 10+ feet from home to the rubber might not seem like a lot, it often makes the difference on whether the pitcher can avoid a ball altogether or at least turn their head away in time.
• Loaded USSSA bats. There’s a reason Little League and other youth baseball organizations banned USSSA bats. They’re not safe in the hands of bigger kids with good swings. Balls explode off their barrels. When kids are younger, the issue of a juiced bat is usually one of fairness: a kid swinging one might get a double instead of a single. But with older kids, it becomes a safety issue for the pitcher and other fielders. And at some tournaments, kids are typically swinging the high end versions of these bats that have even more power.

When you take kids the size of grown men, have them play on small fields meant for Little Leaguers, and let them swing lightweight bats with massive pop, all of a sudden a safe sport becomes unreasonably dangerous.

One coach I know literally pulled his infielders at Cooperstown and played them in the outfield, because he didn’t think it was safe to even play infield.

It’s Time to Ban USSSA Bats at Cooperstown

I get it that smaller kids (and the parents of these kids) love hitting home runs at Cooperstown, but at what cost? The risks to the players is just too great to let this continue. The tournament will still be a wonderful experience with USA or wood bats.

And if your kid doesn’t hit a home run, who cares? Save the ball that he hit for a line drive double or the clutch single that scored two runs.

The Danger of Town Teams Playing Powerhouses at Cooperstown

I’m well aware there are plenty of games going on all over America where USSSA bats are allowed and that Cooperstown is not the only venue where they’re legal. So then why have I heard so much about injuries happening at Cooperstown and not at other places?

I think the very nature of Cooperstown tournaments might be a contributing factor to the injuries. Cooperstown draws teams from all over the country. And it’s common for a town all-star team to make the trip. Now, at the same time, you have true powerhouse teams going as well. In addition, from what I’ve heard, they don’t have a ranking system to curb mismatches. So David vs. Goliath matchups are not a rarity there.

Also, teams go to Cooperstown for a week and play a ton of games (this is not the typical three-game minimum tournament). So you can have a situation where say the undersized, eighth best pitcher on a town team is going up against a stacked lineup of future D1 killers, who are swinging juiced bats.

That’s a recipe for disaster.

Should You Send Your Kid to Cooperstown?

So if the organizers of the tournaments don’t make changes, what can you as a parent do to protect your kid:

• Pull your kid from the tournament. This is actually what I did last year when I started to hear about serious injuries.
• Don’t let your kid pitch at Cooperstown. This step will keep your kid out of danger, but it’s tricky. Some coaches will balk at this. It may also take away from your kid’s experience if he loves pitching. And I think it’s really hard to take a stance that it’s okay for the other kids on the team to pitch, just not for your kid.
• Wear head protection. I am in no way vouching for the efficacy of products that claim they protect against head injuries for pitchers, but I recently bought this one for my son that fits under his baseball cap and supposedly no one will know he’s wearing it.

But this all makes me wonder why we don’t have our boys wear face guards like the girls do in softball. It would seemingly stave off a lot of serious injuries and make it so we don’t have to make difficult decisions, like pulling our kid from a Cooperstown team.

But we won’t do that, even though it makes so much sense and could potentially save our kid’s life, because we can’t have our son be accused of being like a girl.

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE SAFETY RISKS AT COOPERSTOWN? LET US KNOW IN THE COMMENTS.

For information about the emotional side of baseball, see:

• I Spent 30K on Youth Baseball Last Year; Here’s How
• Anger Management and Youth Baseball: How to Calm Down
• How to Manage Your Kid’s Baseball Tantrums and Meltdowns
• 4 Ways to Respond to a Coach Playing Favorites
• How to Stop Being a Crazy Baseball Dad
• How to Be a Good Baseball Dad in the Backyard
• Is It Now Fashionable to Hate On Baseball Dads?
• Are Local Little Leagues Bad for Baseball?

For information on hitting, see:

• How to Get Out of a Hitting Slump
• 4 Best Baseball Batting Aids (No. 3 is Free)
• 4 Hitting Drills You Need to Do Before Every Game
• 4 Old School Baseball Drills You Need to Be Using
• 6 Mistakes to Avoid When Buying a Baseball Bat

For information on pitching, see:

• What You Need to Know About Little League Elbow
• 4 Ways To Increase Your Kid’s Pitching Velocity
• Is the Circle Change Dangerous for Youth Pitchers?
• Why I Don’t Let My Son Pitch in Little League
• How to Make Sure Your Kid Isn’t Overpitched in Basebal

For ways to get faster, see:

• Baseball Speed: 4 Ways to Get Faster