Bad sports, good sports: Family sues bat maker for child’s injury
The parents of an eleven-year-old boy who was hit in the head with a line-drive while pitching in a Little League game near Chicago have filed a lawsuit against the company that manufactures the bat that hit the ball. Apparently, the boy’s parents feel that Easton-Bell Sports makes their bats too hard, allowing injuries like this to occur. Jake Schutter now has brain damage from the incident.
Seeing your child get injured must be horrible. I can not imagine the anguish a parent must go through when dealing with a life-changing injury to a kid. I can completely understand the desire to lash out at the world. What I can’t understand, though, is this repugnant, totally gratuitous lawsuit. If the bats were dangerous, why did Robert and Cheryl Schutter allow Jake to play? Was this his first game? Why not sue the maker of the baseball? After all, if the ball had been softer, the injury surely would not have been as severe. Perhaps they should sue the opposing coach for allowing the kid that hit the ball to play. Maybe they should sue Jake himself for throwing a pitch in a spot that allowed it to be hit that hard.
I feel bad as I write this, as attacking a family who has gone through what the Schutters have experienced this year does not feel all that great. I just can’t get over the sick feeling I get when I think about this suit. As awful as it is, sometimes bad things happen. It’s not always someone’s fault. I assume some lowlife lawyers are advising the family here, but who knows? This is a litigious society, and it certainly could have been the Schutters’ idea. There is certainly plenty of precedent for things like this. I can only hope the courts find the lawsuit as distasteful as I do and throw it out with prejudice. I wish the Schutters well, but in this instance, they should be ashamed of themselves.
Bad sports, continued:
2) Well, there’s something I haven’t seen before. As Nolan Carroll, a special teams player for the Miami Dolphins was running down the sideline during a punt, he was tripped by a member of the New York Jets coaching staff. Sal Alosi, the strength and conditioning coach, stuck his knee out as Carroll ran by, causing the player to tumble to the ground. Alosi has apologized and is awaiting punishment from the league. I say he should be fired.
3) Speaking of unusual sights, have you ever seen a stadium’s roof collapse? Now you have. Looks like they won’t be playing NFL football in Minneapolis for a while.
4) Seven minutes into a men’s basketball game between Oakland University and the University of Illinois, it was discovered that the wrong ball was being used. The ball in question was a women’s basketball, which is smaller and lighter than the one used by the men. I guess the Illini players didn’t like the small ball very much, as they quickly took over the game once the change was made, ending Oakland’s brief upset bid.
5) Greg McKee, a football player for the University of Connecticut, was arrested this week for possession of child pornography.
6) Professional athletes are in the public eye because of their physical skill. Often, that is the only reason. Luke Scott, outfielder for the Baltimore Orioles, appears to be one of the guys who should keep his mouth shut and play. Check out his comments about President Obama in this interview. Politics aside, this is just stupidity.
Good sports:
1) The University of Akron won its first ever NCAA title in any sport on Sunday, taking the championship game in Division I Men’s Soccer with a win over Louisville.
2) The University of Michigan hosted the largest crowd to ever watch a hockey game on Saturday. The Wolverines beat Michigan State 5-0 in front of over 113,000 people in Michigan Stadium. Impressive.
Bad Sports, Good Sports appears every Monday.
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“If Favre can’t play Sunday, *nobody* gets to play Sunday!” – God
Allan, good post, thanks for sharing.
I’d like to chime-in on your “Akron” post. They have a VERY good soccer program, and this is not their first visit to the NCAA Soccer Final Four. But this is the first time they’ve come home with the trophy and the title. Kudos!
I watched the final match with my son, who’s a high school and club soccer keeper. Which brings me to your “baseball bat” post. I can sympathize some with the parents of that Little Leaguer – recalling the fractured vertebrae my son suffered last winter … and another time the-year-before-that when he took on a very hard charge, went down, and stayed down for way-too-long. He got up from that hit, took the mandatory trip to the sidelines, then returned to finish the game.
In both cases, I did everything a parent could to help him recover … but that did NOT include litigation. From what I’ve been able to glean from coverage of the story in Chicago, I don’t understand why they’re suing the bat-maker, and I find myself echoing your sentiments on this one.
By the way, that son of mine was playing in Arlington, Texas, in 2009, when the all of the fields were cleared by a severe storm blowing through … the same storm that, a few minutes later, collapsed the Dallas Cowboys’ practice facility. Unlike the Metrodome incident, though, the collapse in Texas caused a dozen or so injuries – some of them serious.
A 2007 study on “Non-Wood vs. Wood Bats” by Illinois State University concluded that “there was no statistically significant evidence that non-wood bats result in an increased incidence of severity of injury.”
Injury statistics have been kept on record at Little League International since the early 1960s. Since that time, there have been eight fatalities in the Little League program as a result of the batted ball. Six of the fatalities have come from wood bats and two from non-wood bats — in 1971 and 1973. Those occurred 20 years before the mandated Bat Performance Factor (BPF) bat standard that is in place today.
In 2007, minor league baseball coach Mike Coolbaugh (Double A — Tulsa Drillers) was killed during a game by a ball hit off a wood bat, while he was coaching first base.
Baseball is not dangerous, but unexpected injuries do occur – off both wood and non-wood bats.
In September of 2007, longtime major league baseball player and current Cincinnati Reds manager (formerly with the San Francisco Giants) Dusty Baker wrote a letter where he defended the integrity and safety of the non-wood baseball bat:
“As a former Major League Baseball player and manager, and as the father of an eight-year-old son who uses a metal bat, I support players using the bat of their choice because I know wood and metal are safe. If they weren’t, I wouldn’t let my son use an aluminum bat. I strongly believe leagues, players, coaches and baseball officials should decide what type of bat they want to use.”
Mike May
DTMBA & SGMA
By the way … my earlier statements notwithstanding, my thoughts are with the Schutters, and I pray for the boy, for his recovery, for his family and his doctors.
Dan – funny!
Jeff – thanks for the personal story. It is certainly pertinent here.
Mike – thanks for reading. I agree with you. Holding the bat makers makes no sense whatsoever, especially considering that there is no proof that aluminum bats are more dangerous than wood bats.