Los Angeles herald., 1909-06-06
ACCIDENTS TO BALL
PLAYERS NUMEROUS
SOME ONE IS HURT IN NEARLY
EVERY GAME
Injuries Result More Seriously Be-
cause Little Attention Is Paid to
Wounds Received in Con-
tests on Diamonds
BY RED PERKINS


The large number of minor accidents
which occur each year on Southern
California baseball diamonds is as
| tonishing, and the lack Of attention
given the wounded is regrettable. In
the excitement of the game I have seen
players forget all about their injuries,
believing them to be slight with the
result that permanent disabilities have
been caused
| Scarcely a game takes place in the
amateur league, both of the interschol-
astic and intercollegiate leagues. in
which some player does not receive an
injury. Baseball is really more haz-
ardous than football for in the latter
the accidents are generally so severe
the wounded player is rushed to hos
| pital, where he is given prompt sur
gical attention; but in baseball the
| player is likely to pass UP the wound
as not requiring medical attention.
| Time and again have 1 noticed this in
| Los Angeles, and as a result the in
iured man is absent from the team for
/ days.
Considering the number of balls a
! pitcher has to handle, including those
which are thrown to the home plate, he
/ sustains comparatively few injuries.
Shin guards are worn by some catch
Eers as a protection against spiking.
Anything, that is not cumbersome and
which offers a shield should be adopted.
| On the bases the runners are likely
to fracture bones or to sprain ankles.
In a recent game one of the players
sustained fracture of his right an
/ kle while trying to round first base.
| There seems to be an unwritten law
among ball players that the first base
man should never try to block run
ner, but at second and third bases
/ blocking a runner is held as the duty
of the man guarding the bag, by which
often the deadly spike results in injury
| to one or to both players.
In sliding into a base the player oft
en- receives severe contusions to the hip
or thigh. Collisions sometimes occur
in the field when two men are chasing
a ball and do not hear the coaching of
their fellow players.
When, a few years ago, baseball was
established firmly in the south a play
er would laugh at a spike wound. con-
sidering it trivial. When a player sus-
tains a severely sprained joint it is
difficult to get him to do what he
| ought, immobilize the part
| Accidents have been more frequent
this year in the miscellaneous ranks
than in former years. Several cases
can be related where the player has
| been spiked or put out of the game by
being hit with a ball.
| The most serious accident reported
this season happened in the game be-
tween Long Beach and Polytechnic
high school teams for the champion
ship of the interscholastic league, when
a girl spectator received blow on the
head from a foul ball which kept her
at home for several weeks!
Last Sunday Doc Newton of the
Rivera team sustained a painful injury
by coming in contact with a fence in
an effort to catch a foul tip.
The most serious injury to an anna
teur player this season happened when
Frisco Cowan sustained several frac-
tured ribs while playing against the
! Palms ball team at Palms. Cowan was
| in bed for six weeks before he was
able to play again.
Leo O'Connor catcher for the ST.
| Vincents' varsity nine, is one catcher
who was compelled to remain in a hos
pital for several weeks on account of
/ fractured finger. In the game against
the Cotton high school his finger was
broken and the flesh torn from the
bone as clean as if a knife had been
used. Before the injury had healed
O'Connor was out on the campus
catching ball with another student.
Finklestein, another catcher, while
playing at the Joy park diamond sus-
tanned a slight fracture of the right leg
and of the middle finger, which kept
him out of the game for weeks.
One Sunday afternoon while watching
ball game on a sand lot a third base
man in running after a fly stumbled
and scratched his hand on some rusty
tin cans and when 1 advised him to
have it attended to he only laughed.
A few days later [ saw him on the
street with yards of bandage around
his hand. 1t cost him two weeks wages
before the injured hand could be used.