Helmet add-ons

[The Man in Blue]

From NOCSAE themselves:

STANDARD TEST METHOD AND EQUIPMENT USED IN EVALUATING THE PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS OF
HEADGEAR/EQUIPMENT NOCSAE DOC ND 001-17m17b

Page 5: “NOCSAE does not approve, disapprove, certify, or recertify athletic equipment of any kind.”

 

(Now back to my own words) NOCSAE develops testing standards.  It is up to the manufacturer to administer the testing and results, and to certify their product met those standards.  FYI ... the sample size for certifying a model of batting helmet ... 3 helmets.  One baseball and two softball tests.

From NOCSAE:

STANDARD PERFORMANCE SPECIFICATION FOR NEWLY MANUFACTURED
BASEBALL/SOFTBALL BATTER’S HELMETS
NOCSAE DOC (ND) 022-18

5.3. Two of the submitted sample helmets shall be impacted with a softball in accordance with Table 1 below and as depicted in Figure 2.
5.4. The third submitted sample shall be impacted at ambient condition with a baseball in two locations. At least one of the locations shall be the location that exhibited the highest resultant Severity Index reading of the two sample helmets when impacted at ambient condition with a softball. The other location shall be selected to exploit any location on the helmet within the specified impact area (Figure 1) that may result in a failure during the impact test. The impact velocity with a baseball shall be 60  3% MPH.

 

[JonnyCat]

12 hours ago, yawetag said:

Until recently, Fed required equipment checks in baseball. I've been around long enough to know that. Still doesn't answer the question though. Why is it only LL?

Statements like this is what will cause that liability to fall on you. If you follow the LL letter, then you've got a defense - ignore it, then you're on the hook when that c-flap causes an injury. Don't get me wrong, I will still check the gear. But what about the umpires that don't check gear? A lot of them don't in our area, particularly the Associations that do paid LL games. Has there ever been any documented cases of sports officials being sued because they didn't check gear or missed some gear? (Serious question) How could you even prove that particular piece of equipment was even out when doing your checks? Seems like LL is playing more on fears.

It's because those leagues typically pay for the flap to be installed by a professional, often by the manufacturer. Little League, as you can see from the original post, often leads to after-market knock-offs to be installed by Dad; without a third-party checking them, there's the added risk of improper equipment causing injury. MLB, yes. HS, I don't think so, most schools in our area aren't paying a "professional" to put on c-flaps. They either buy it that way(I guess that could be classified as being installed by a professional), or more likely they are installed by a dad or one of the coaches. Even the aftermarket "knockoffs" (whatever that is) aren't hard to install. If the c-flap is properly installed, it offers way more protection than not. I'd rather a kid get hit on the c-flap than the jaw. How is getting hit on the c-flap worse that getting one directly to the jaw or face? Unless the c-flap is somehow installed with 16d nails or lag screws, I think the added protection is worth it.

Don't get me wrong. I love that I don't have to go into the dugouts any more. However, when we were required to do it, I did it right and I did it well. Because if anything looks bad when you're on the stand, it's implying that you ignored the mandate set by your league or organization.

LL just wants to avoid a lawsuit and uses the umpires as a line of defense. That's fine if they want to do that, I just take exception to the notion that as an umpire LL wants me to be responsible for equipment safety and if I miss something that's not even my fault, I could be held liable. I don't mind checking the gear and using common sense, but I don't like the threat of a lawsuit for something that is likely beyond my control. In other words, if someone is going to sue me because I supposedly didn't properly check a piece of equipment, whats to prevent them from suing me even if I did? They could still say I somehow missed something such as a crack, etc. I wouldn't mind if LL would say: "we want our umpires to check gear for safety reasons, but ultimately LL is responsible for player safety." Yeah that sounds great, I'll umpire your game for free, but feel free to sue me as I am somehow responsible for every players safety. Total BS. LL keeps this crap up, my long time tenure with LL will be coming to a close.

As others have said, what makes me qualified to be the judge of equipment safety? I'm supposed to be the expert on bats, helmets, catchers gear, etc? LL needs to accept responsibility for their program and not use umpires as pawns.

This will all be a moot point soon as the manufacturers will eventually comply (as many have already done) and it will be a non-issue. Then LL will probably find something else to annoy me with!

[JonnyCat]

19 hours ago, The Man in Blue said:

We don’t have LL around here, but I can say that USA Softball requires us to do equipment checks.  The stringency of those checks depends on the facility you work.  However here is my issue with checking equipment: it is putting more liability on me than it is taking off of me.  I have handled that equipment and said it is good.  I have no formal training to do that.  I have no technical training to do that.  I have no engineering degree or testing equipment.  I look at it.  I shake it.  I rub it.  Yep, that’s good!

A couple of years ago I had a team that had replaced all of the foam in their batting helmets with gel cooling packs.  I advised the coach I was going to toss all of his helmets because they had been modified.  He said he bought them that way.  I said OK, good enough for me.   I didn’t work for the manufacturer so I couldn’t contradict that.  I highly doubted it, but what do I know.

All organizations need to accept responsibility for player safety and not put it on umpires. You're absolutely right, what makes me qualified to be responsible for player safety? Each organization needs to have insurance for that as part of doing business.

Another reason in the long list of why there is a shortage of officials.