Has the time come to protect the pitchers?

It's OK if you laugh.

Paul Poirier did.

It was the Carmel pitcher's first reaction when I asked him if pitchers should wear protective gear, specifically helmets.

You're having a hard time picturing it, right? A pitcher in a helmet? The idea sounds almost silly, right?

That's what Poirier thought, but I thought it was a valid question, considering the circumstances.

Poirier was forced to leave a game against Benet last weekend after getting beamed in the forearm with a line drive that was rocketed back at the mound-and into him. The impact left his hand swollen and his arm sore.

I said to him after the game, "What if that ball had been traveling a bit higher? It could have hit you in the head. Wouldn't you have wanted a helmet then?"

"I would have caught it," Poirier said wryly, and with a slight smile. "No, I don't know. Wearing a helmet as a pitcher? I guess it would help if you got hit in the head. But really, I'm not worried about it.

"I guess I'm more focused on getting an out than on the chance I could get hit."

But should Poirier be more concerned about getting hit? Should we all, as parents of players, as fans of the game?

Perhaps, most importantly, should there be any concern coming from the Illinois High School Association or the National Federation of State High School Associations, neither of which currently mandate or even suggest the use of protective equipment for pitchers?

After all, there is only 60 short feet between a pitcher and a hitter, less as the pitcher reaches the longest part of his stretch. Hitters are bigger and stronger than ever. And bat technology is getting more advanced every day.

Those balls come off those bats fast. And pitchers must react in an instant.

What if they can't?

I know, personally, pitcher safety never resonated so poignantly with me until my own son Matthew (I call him Matty) started pitching last summer. He's 9 years old and just started playing kid-pitch baseball.

Anyone who is a regular reader of this column knows that I'm a bit of a worrywart when it comes to my kids. OK, more than a bit.

I wrote a column last fall during football season about how I was struggling with the decision of whether or not to let Matty play football.

He really wants to, he says he's ready for it. I'm just not sure I am.

I'm worried he could get hurt.

Same thing with baseball. I worry about those line drives when he's on the mound. There is even less real estate between a pitcher and a hitter on those Little League fields.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a column about Lake Zurich pitcher Parker Asmann, in which I cited an instance where he was nearly hit in the head by a line drive that came screaming back toward him on the mound.

Luckily, he got his glove up just in time, and the ball simply grazed his hand.

After talking with Asmann, and considering my own personal concerns about my son, I thought that maybe I should do a column about pitcher safety someday.

Then last week, I got an e-mail from Matt Hart's dad, accompanied by a horrifying picture of what a line drive to the head can do. I knew the column could wait no longer.

Eye-opening injuryHart is a junior pitcher at Wheeling. His dad Tim wrote to me to say that he had read my story about Asmann and that it "touched on something close to my heart."When Matt was a sophomore last year, pitching up on varsity, he, too, stood in the path of a line drive smacked straight back to the mound. But unlike Asmann, he wasn't able to get his glove up in time.The ball creamed Hart smack dab in his right eye.Ouch!"Actually, I really didn't feel anything," said Hart, who was immediately covered in blood and struggled to even open his eye. It quickly turned black and blue and swelled shut. "Everyone was saying, 'That must have hurt, that must have hurt.' But it didn't at first because I think I just went numb. I think I was also in shock."The impact of the line drive fractured Hart's orbital socket in three places and damaged his sinus cavity. He also suffered permanent damage to his retina, which has forever compromised his vision in his right eye.Previously blessed with 20/20 vision, Hart now has no better than 20/50 vision in his right eye, and even a prescription can't improve it. He also has a few dead spots in his sight lines.Doctors told him that had the impact occurred one-fourth of an inch lower, he would have lost his eye altogether. One-fourth of an inch."It was horrible. You could tell right away just by the sound that it was going to be bad. It sounded like the ball had hit cement," Tim Hart told me. "To this day, every time I see a line drive up the middle, I shudder a little bit. I hope to never see anything like that again. Ever."Hopefully, Mr. Hart won't.Hopefully, none of us baseball parents ever will.Matt Hart, who returned to the mound after just seven weeks and is pitching well enough now to once again have legitimate hopes of pitching at the collegiate level, said that he isn't overcome with fear or worry when he's on the mound because getting hit the way he did was probably a "one in a million shot."I would tend to agree.But-What if you're that one in a million? What if your kid is?The chances of being hit by a bus while crossing the street are probably very small, but we still protect ourselves by carefully looking both ways.Hey, better to be safe than sorry, right?Couldn't the same logic be applied to baseball pitchers?Some have already taken to wearing breastplates under their uniforms in case they take a shot to the chest, which has caused the hearts of some pitchers to stop.So why not a helmet then?It might look a little funny, it might not jibe with tradition, and it might not be the most functional or convenient until it received some major tweaking that could address the specific needs of pitchers, but frankly, I wouldn't mind it.I would be all for pitchers wearing helmets.Then again, I'm a worrywart, remember? And I think I might be in the minority here.No helmet hypeEven Matt Hart, who needed 10 months of eye therapy and is forced to wear special goggles to protect his eyes when he plays any sport, isn't all that interested in wearing protective headgear when he's on the mound."I know it sounds weird considering what happened to me but I wouldn't want to wear a helmet," Hart said. "If I didn't absolutely have to wear my goggles, I wouldn't even want to wear those either. They're just a hassle and they cause problems. They fog up when I sweat and they affect my side vision. I'm sure a helmet would have those kinds of hassles, too."I say if someone wants to wear a helmet or protective goggles, more power to them. But if they don't, they shouldn't be forced to."And they won't be. At least not any time soon.Some softball pitchers, who are a mere 43 feet from home plate (moved back just this year, mind you, from 40 feet), have started wearing helmets and masks. But only on their own accord. There are no requirements to do so.The only way the IHSA would mandate any equipment change for pitchers in softball or baseball is if the NFHSA did so. And that's unlikely."There just doesn't seem to be an outcry for it nationally. That's what we're hearing (from the NFHSA)," IHSA assistant executive director Matt Troha said. "Last year in the south suburbs there were like four pitchers in a two-week stretch that took line drives off the face and I remember there were all kinds of articles written about it, and about safety and masks."But we still haven't heard from a lot of coaches on it. I think most of them think it's not a big enough problem. That's why most coaches probably would not be for a mandatory mask for a pitcher. It's in the rulebook as an option and I think they'd prefer to just leave it that way." Count Benet's Jeff Bonebrake (an appropriate name for the topic) among those coaches. I talked with him about pitcher safety after the Carmel game in which Poirier got hit in the forearm and he says that the baseball purist in him just can't warm up to the idea of headgear for pitchers."Injuries are a part of the game, maybe not a pretty part of the game, but in any competitive sport you're going to have to deal with injuries because there's risk involved," Bonebrake said. "I mean, we have a left fielder who has a broken jaw. It's wired shut. He got hit by a foul ball standing on deck. Injuries can happen anywhere."You could put a mask or a helmet on the pitcher, but do you then put one on all the infielders, too? I've had just as many shortstops break orbital bones or break noses because of ground balls (that took a bad hop). If it starts with the pitcher where is it going to stop?"I say it should stop when every player is properly protected.That's not happening in baseball. It never has. And I wonder if it ever will.If you ask me, that's no laughing matter.False640385Matt Hart's orbital bone was fractured in three spots when he was hit by a line drive last spring.Photo courtesy Hart familyFalse