Out at the Plate

By Rick Woelfel

In both baseball and softball, at every level from the pros to youth leagues, umpires are at risk for concussions. The problem is that most (if not all) umpires have had one and don’t even know it. And once you’ve had one and it’s gone unnoticed, the risk for more serious injuries rises.

You’re locked into your stance and pick up the ball as soon as it leaves the pitcher’s hand. You’re set to track the pitch all the way to the catcher’s mitt when you hear the clang and feel the jolt as the foul ball slams into your mask.

It takes a few seconds for the cobwebs to clear but then it’s right back to work. After the game, you have a bit of a headache, but that comes with the territory; you’ll shake it off.

Or maybe not.

The fuzziness you feel after taking a shot in the mask, or the dull headache after the game, might be signs you have a concussion. That’s not something you can just shake off.

Umpires have been a target for foul balls since they moved directly behind home plate in the 19th century. But the topic is drawing more attention in the umpiring community. Several MLB umpires have been sidelined by concussions in recent seasons, some for extended periods.

For many years, umpires took pride in shaking off the effects of a foul ball. It was part of the code; even acknowledging getting hit was considered a sign of weakness. Today there’s a different mind-set as the medical community becomes more aware of the risks associated with head injuries.

At the highest levels of the sport, MLB keeps a close eye on umpires who have sustained blows to the head, to the point of taking them off the field if it’s necessary.

Umpires working at other levels need to be aware of the potential hazards they face as well. Any umpire, working any level of play, from Little League and 10-year-old travel softball on up, is at risk for a concussion from a foul ball, or perhaps from a carelessly swung bat.

What is a Concussion?

A concussion occurs when the force of a blow, usually but not always to the head, causes the brain to shake inside the skull. The most common symptom is a headache, but dizziness, lightheadedness and fatigue can also occur, and occasionally nausea and vomiting.

Dr. Jamie Pardini, from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Sports Concussion Program, says umpires ignore the signs of a concussion at their peril.

“We know now that this is not the type of injury you should or can shake off,” she says. “And we know that if you don’t recover before getting hit in the head again, that can lead to longer-term problems.”

Symptoms can vary considerably from person to person however, and it’s entirely possible to have a concussion and not realize it.

“Think about the milder spectrum of concussion,” Pardini says, “where you get hit in the head and feel foggy, or you can’t remember a few seconds of what happened to you and now you have this bad headache.

“There are plenty of people who will try to shake that off and may not consider that a concussion and may not get help. In some cases it kind of goes away on its own over time and in other cases we may see someone down the line who’s kind of had these persistent problems.”

Are there More Concussions Today?

Umpiring has never been a risk-free endeavor, of course. But in light of the recent incidents involving MLB umpires, the question arises, are more umpires sustaining concussions today, or is it a case of more concussions being diagnosed?

Pardini believes several circumstances are in play. “I think the number-one reason is there’s more awareness,” she says. “People are better at identifying concussions, whether it’s the athlete or professional themselves or (medical personnel). I think the awareness of the potential severity of the injury and of the exact signs and symptoms of injury is just a whole lot better.”

Another factor is that today’s ballplayers, at every level of the sport, are bigger and stronger than their predecessors from years or decades ago. Pitchers are throwing harder and hitters are taking bigger cuts.

Add the aluminum bats used in most amateur games and the emphasis on the long ball that has batters swinging for the fences and the result is things happen on the field more quickly than they used to.

And umpires are directly in the line of fire.

“It’s a different generation,” says 10-year MLB veteran Greg Gibson. “(Players) are swinging that lighter bat, generating more bat speed. When that ball comes off that bat, it picks up speed. And when it comes straight back at you …”

Is Positioning a Factor?

It’s also been suggested that umpires are setting up differently behind home plate than they used to. Since the days of Bill Klem in the early 1900s, umpires using the inside chest protector have been taught to work “in the slot,” the gap between the batter and the catcher’s inside shoulder.

New umpires at any level are counseled never to work directly over the catcher’s head with the inside protector for the sake of their own safety.

But some believe today’s big-league umpires are setting up higher and more toward the center of the plate than their predecessors. Legendary NL umpire Doug Harvey contends the emphasis on calling higher strikes at the MLB level has pushed umpires closer to the center of the plate, where they are more likely to be in the path of a foul ball.

“They’re trying to get the high pitch right,” Harvey says. “They’re setting higher and they’re setting behind the catcher. It’s the old American League position without the balloon (the outside chest protector which was used by AL umpires until the 1970s).”

Gibson says it’s necessary to work higher at times because catchers shift positions behind the plate more than they used to. When they shift inside, the slot often disappears.

“Look at a tape from the 1970s,” Gibson says. “Guys like Johnny Bench set up behind the middle of the plate and never moved.”

Umpires working at lower levels can find their view of the strike zone obscured as well when catchers shift in front of them, but they don’t have Gibson’s 18 years of professional experience to rely on. When they adjust their stance behind the plate to get a better view of the pitch, they may be inadvertently increasing their exposure to potential injury.

Gibson has first-hand knowledge of the subject of concussions. He was injured in June 2003 when he took a shot in the mask by a foul ball off the bat of Carlos Delgado, who was playing for Toronto at the time.

“It happened in the sixth or seventh inning,” Gibson recalls. “I finished the game and I have no recollection of anything.”

The injury put Gibson out of action for more than a month. But at the time, none of his crewmates were aware he’d been injured. Gibson finished the game and his strike zone wasn’t affected. His parents were watching the game on TV and had no inkling anything was wrong.

“My dad said there might have been one pitch that was questionable,” Gibson recalls. “He said ‘You were dead on.’”

Gibson was able to continue functioning behind the plate in spite of his injury because, after hundreds of plate assignments at the professional level, the tasks associated with calling balls and strikes were so familiar to him that they were imbedded in his unconscious memory.

Suffering from concussion symptoms, Gibson may not have been able to hold a normal conversation, drive a car or read a newspaper. But he was still able to track a 90 mph fastball.

“(Doctors) told me I finished that game because we’re so well trained and we do what we do so much that my brain continued to function,” he says.

Pro Umpires Required to Get Help

There was a time when Gibson, or any umpire sustaining a head blow, would have been expected back on the field almost immediately and would have been back behind the plate four days later as usual.

But in the last decade, MLB has established a program that monitors umpires who have sustained head blows, or other injuries, and educates umpires about the risks and symptoms of concussions.

Mike Port, MLB’s vice president of umpiring, says umpires are required to report any injury that may affect their work, including blows to the head.

“Somewhat traditionally, umpires would take a hit and, if you will, soldier on in spite of that,” Port says. “They are tough individuals in terms of tolerating the nicks, scrapes, bruises and whatever. Since about 2000, with the advent of our medical program, the goal has been to be preventative, or err on the side of caution.”

On occasion, MLB will order an umpire not to work until an injury has cleared up, something that would have been almost unthinkable half a century ago.

“There are times when we just have to flat-out order them not to work,” Port says. “They’re from a culture where they don’t like to let little things get in the way of their officiating efforts, but if it’s based on a medical recommendation, we are not averse to telling them, ‘Based on what the doctors are telling us, no, you will not work.’”

Gibson returned to duty in August 2003 and worked the first round of the playoffs at the end of that season. He was sidelined by head blows in each of the next two seasons however, for two weeks each time, and says now he came back to work too quickly.

“Honestly and truly, I should have gone home for the rest of the (2003) season and shut it down,” Gibson says. “I really didn’t start feeling good until the middle of ’06.”

Today’s umpires are monitored for concussion symptoms from the moment they enter the big leagues. At the start of their careers they are given a baseline test, which measures their neurological function in a variety of areas.

“Ideally a baseline test is something you take before you ever get a head injury,” Pardini says. It is a way to measure your memory, thinking speed, reaction time. Those are all cognitive processes, or ways of thinking, that can be affected by a concussion.

“What the baseline does is let us know your individual profile of strengths and weaknesses, exactly how you should be without the injury.”

The test is standardized and doctors have an understanding of what “normal” results are for patients of various ages. But Pardini explains that the test is structured to allow for individual differences.

“Take me for example,” she says. “I got through graduate school, my memory is extraordinary, but because I’m very anxious about getting things wrong, my speed is very average. And so my individual profile of strengths and weaknesses might be different from somebody who values speed over accuracy.

“You may be a little better at speed-related tasks than I might. That doesn’t mean I have a concussion; it means that this is my weakness.”

MLB umpires are retested periodically throughout their careers; how often depends on their individual circumstances. Prior to the start of each season they are briefed on concussion symptoms by Mark Letendre, the director of umpire medical services, and his staff.

When an umpire receives a blow to the head he is required to undergo tests for concussion symptoms. The results are compared to his baseline evaluation. The umpire is not cleared to return to work until his symptoms have cleared up and his responses are within the normal range.

Today’s minor league umpires are screened for concussions under the same protocols as umpires in MLB. The screening program was expanded to cover minor league umpires after they returned from their job action in 2006.

Umpires undergo a baseline test when they enter professional baseball and must be medically evaluated when they take a blow to the head.

Shaun Francis, the president of the Association of Minor League Umpires who worked in the Double-A Eastern League in 2008, says there was some resistance to the program at first. Historically, minor league umpires have been reluctant to miss time due to injury, due to either pressure from league presidents or, more recently, a belief that missing time due to injury would hurt an umpire’s chances of advancement or making the big leagues.

“If you’re off the field, that’s one day a supervisor or evaluator can’t see you,” Francis says. “And there were concerns that this was something that could be held against us, ‘You can’t stay healthy’ or ‘Will they not give me the next major-league contract because I’ve had (a concussion)?’

“But we feel like Minor League Baseball is doing a good job of staying on top of this and wants to keep us healthy.”

Port points out that Major League Baseball spends considerable time and effort developing its umpires and it makes good sense to look out for their long-term health.

“They are people of some ability,” he says, “and we want to assist them in providing that ability on the field consistently, without interruption and also from a career standpoint, just as you would with a good player.”

Most amateur umpires have never had a baseline test, unless they’ve had a previous head injury, playing high school football for instance. By doing some detective work, however, a medical professional can often determine if the individual he or she is treating has suffered a concussion at some point in their lives.

There’s no cure for a concussion other than rest; exactly how much depends on the individual. Your headache and lightheadedness from that foul ball may disappear in a day or two but your partner’s symptoms may not clear up for weeks.

“Rest is the key,” Pardini says. “That’s cognitive and physical rest. Don’t push yourself; that increases your symptoms.

“If you’re diagnosed with one and you’re still having symptoms, you probably are more vulnerable, should you get hit a second time, to having worse symptoms. We don’t want to injure the brain, just like we don’t want to injure any other part of the body while it’s still trying to heal.”

And Pardini reiterated that there is no set treatment, as each person will recover in a different manner and speed.

“We try to get through to people it is a very individualized process,” Pardini said. “We have to manage each case as an individual case; there’s no cookbook. There’s no magic number and I don’t think there ever will be.”

Is an umpire who suffers a concussion more vulnerable to another?

Pardini says the answer depends on the individual and his or her medical history.

“With one or two prior concussions, the results are pretty mixed,” she says. “What we really think is it has to do with is how well the first concussion is managed. If someone is symptom-free at rest, symptom-free at exertion and normal on cognitive testing before going back to a risk situation, most people should be no more vulnerable, or barely more vulnerable, than someone who hasn’t had an injury.

“The literature is a little more consistent with three concussions or more. You have a longer recovery or may be slightly more susceptible, but those are group data and we really see that vary across individuals. Some people never recover from one concussion. Some people recover quite well from multiple concussions.”

Can Umpires Help Themselves?

Protective equipment continues to evolve, but the question remains, what can umpires do to protect themselves from head injuries? In recent years the hockey-style helmet mask (HSM) has become more popular. The HSM is heavier than the traditional mask and offers additional protection for the sides of the head. That feature reduces the risk of injury from a batter’s followthrough, or from a bat that shatters.

Umpires who work under NFHS and NCAA rules are familiar with the fact that batting helmets and catcher’s gear must meet the NOCSAE standards for protection. However, there are no similar standards for umpire’s gear.

“The best thing an umpire can do is wear a product that meets the NOCSAE standard and most of them don’t,” said David Halstead, the technical director for NOCSAE.

Halstead went on to say that the hockey-style helmet does typically provide better protection from the impact of both balls and bats than the traditional masks for umpires or the mask-helmet combinations for catchers.

But Gibson, who switched to an HSM after his 2003 injury, points out there is only so much protective gear can do. “A head-on shot is a head-on shot,” he says. “It doesn’t matter what you’re wearing.”

Gibson’s point is well taken. There are no reliable statistics available that compare one mask to another in terms of the level of protection they offer. But the laws of physics dictate that no piece of protective gear can offer complete protection all of the time.

When an umpire is struck by a foul ball, some of the force of the blow is absorbed by the mask, but the rest is absorbed by the umpire’s body, including the head. That’s why an umpire wearing state-of-the art equipment can still sustain a concussion whether he’s working in Little League or the big leagues.

“Equipment research continues to grow,” Pardini says, “but there’s never anything you can put around your head that’s going to be able to prevent every concussion.”

Rick Woelfel is a freelance writer and baseball umpire based in Philadelphia.

Sidebar:

Dave Halstead is the technical director for the NOCSAE program, which has tested and certified athletic equipment since 1969 with the goal of improving the equipment and reducing injuries. He was asked several questions about umpire masks and his safety program.

Is there a standard for umpire masks?
“There is not a standard for umpires’ masks, just catchers’ hockey-style masks and catchers’ headgear combination masks attached to helmets that cover the ears.”

Which do you prefer for umpires and catchers?
“For impacts to the face, the hockey-style mask is significantly superior to the traditional catcher’s headgear combination. The NOCSAE standard includes impact from the ball and from the bat. Traditional masks meet the ball standard, but aren’t as safe with the bat impact. For umpires to be the safest, they should buy a black catcher’s hockey-style mask because it will have been certified by NOCSAE.”

What about people who say the lighter masks aren’t as safe as older, heavier masks?
“The weight of the mask is almost no factor when it comes to injuries. But the fact is that no one wants to wear a heavy product on their head. For concussions, it’s the sudden movement of the head that causes the problems. So there are times when heavier is a problem. Yes, it’s harder to get moving, but once you get it going, it’s harder to stop, which is bad.”

Is steel safer than the newer metals?
“In concussion management, the metallic portion of the masks really isn’t all that important. The lightness of the metal isn’t as important as the alloy. I’ve seen some masks made with steel, but hollow steel tubing — those aren’t as good. I don’t see them. A wire that bends on impact is a good thing. But no one wants wires that bend because people see that as a problem. The wire needs to be rigid enough to keep the ball off an umpire’s face, but doesn’t have any effect on the risk of concussions. If you have wires that snap and people get injured that way, it’s a different story.”

What type of padding is best?
“I can tell you I have tested a large number of products for companies. If they put different padding in the umpires’ masks, it’s because they want umpires to be comfortable. But the softer the padding and cushier the feel, the less protective a mask typically is.”