Concussions are Real

They do happen in baseball. And sometimes freakishly. Last week at my son's JV game a batter on the other team took a cut at a FB (relatively) in on the hands and the ball fouled straight-up into his face (upper cheek). He went down hard and game was delayed. Carted off and went to hospital. No fractures but a concussion. Pretty scary stuff. Has anyone seen this sort of thing before?

Yep.

Similar. When I was a LL officer one of our Juniors players fouled while attempting a sac bunt and the ball came up and hit him in the eye.  It was  bad.  He had 2 surgeries and never got full vision back in that eye.   He did go on to play JV and V baseball in HS but without much success. OTOH he's a good kid and he'll be starting at a good college in the fall.

Surprisingly, I think something I read not long ago reported that the highest incidents of concussions occur in girl's soccer. Football was third, softball fourth, and baseball fifth. All were ahead of hockey.

Daughter was playing a JO volleyball tournament.  She spiked a ball that hit the other teams Libero in the face.  She continued to play, but a few minutes later she was having problems walking and was taken out -yep, concusion.

Yeah, I've heard that too. It does seem like a "duh" kind of thing.  One of the most important skills the kids learn is to use their noggins to strike a rapidly moving object.  Not only that, but nearby kids are attempting to do the same, so heads sometimes clash. Concussions often result.  Duh.

The study below has football as #1, but the numbers are based high school, and per 10,000 participants. The study you saw might have used other criteria.

http://espn.go.com/espn/story/...high-school-athletes

I find it interesting that girls soccer numbers are significantly higher than boys. Are girls more susceptible, or are they more likely to honestly report their symptoms? These studies often generate more questions than answers.

Back to the OP's topic... I know a HS kid who was out 2 weeks with concussion symptoms after being accidentally hit in the head with a ball during throwing warm-ups.

Simple answer there... remember, it is a girl's instinct to say "I can't, I have a headache".

JUST KIDDING, LADIES!!!

Speaking of politically incorrect, I can't believe there isn't a thread on Donald Sterling yet.

OK, back to the topic at hand... actually, I am avoiding it as it hits way too close to home.

Several years ago there was a study done on some of the top U18 girl's soccer teams in the country. A majority of the girls already had memory issues from headers. I've seen two boys go up high for headers, bang their heads together and go to the ground dazed. In high school my son (a goalie) dove head first to take the ball off a shooter's foot. The shooter nailed him full force in the head with his attempted shot. My son was out on his feet (so to speak). He had to leave the game and go to the hospital.

Great discussion. Yes, soccer sees more concussions in girls than in boys. I think this is likely due to the weakness of neck and upper back musculature rather than girls being more willing to admit symptoms. I've found girls are very reluctant to report symptoms in all sports.

Boys tend to attempt the "macho" mentality whereas girls tend to be more embarrassed than anything.