MLB Makes Good On Promise to Protect Players

While many organizations—NCAA, NHL and the NFL—take reactive measures, the MLB has taken steps to ensure it is not caught with its pants down, facing a multi-million-dollar lawsuit.

The Players’ Association and MLB announced that they have agreed to enact a home-plate-collision rule for the 2014 season. The rule seeks to limit violent collisions at home plate that have caused season-ending injuries, concussions and the potential for long-term cognitive impairment.

Mike Matheny, whose career was cut-short due to multiple concussions, had this to say about the proposed rule:

I’m not on a mission here to try to do anything except do what’s right,” [ ] “First of all, make people aware that the concussion thing is real and not just in football and hockey. It’s real in baseball, and I did a real poor job of communicating that early on. And the other thing is, let’s take a risk-reward analysis of this thing. What is the risk of the good of the game, let alone the individual, and the long-term repercussions? And what’s the reward?”

“I don’t know how it’s all going to play how except for the fact that we think it’s the right thing. And the right thing is to try to keep our guys on the field.”

Although there is no firm scientific data that proves this rule will reduce concussions, common sense clearly dictates that it will.

Unlike the NCAA, which repeatedly makes empty promises about player safety and simultaneously manufactures doubt about enacting hit limits, MLB has chosen not to wait.

MLB recognizes the threat and has taken proactive measures to ensure their players are protected at all levels.

I applaud MLB for placing player safety over profit. Perhaps this will be a wake-up call to the NCAA and NHL. Players are being exposed to needless brain trauma. Stop the excuses and live up to your professed obligations.