Baseball injuries to children

The New York Times reported on June 9 that a just released Consumer Product Safety Commission report documented that 1.5 million kids went to the Emergency Room over a 13-year period with injuries that resulted from baseball.  The study will appear in the June, 2009 issue of Pediatrics.  Most injuries were minor, and facial injuries were most predominant.  98 percent of the kids were treated in the E.R. and released, although more than 24,000 required hospitalization.  One author suggested that mouth guards are "low tech, low cost and readily available" and should be a routine part of baseball culture.

On a personal note, having sacrificed three front teeth to the sport, and fractured an ankle, while never suffering a serious injury in football, I'd have to say that my high school baseball career would tend to corroborate the findings of this study.  Even if my "career" ended long before the study period started.