Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Lethal
From the Detroit Free Press:
Margaret Ruth “Maggie” Hilbrands was injured during practice Monday evening with the Lowell Xtreme traveling softball team. She died Tuesday at DeVos Children’s Hospital.Obviously baseball is a threat to society. This is two people that we know of in the last couple of weeks. Now, I know some people will call them accidents and that baseball had nothing to do with it, but that's wrong. People don't kill people, baseballs kill people.
“She missed the ball. It appears it hit her in the wrong spot. She never regained consciousness,” her mother, Jan Hilbrands, told the Grand Rapids Press.
The incident came just a day after another person was killed after being struck in the
head by a ball. Mike Coolbaugh, a 35-year-old coach for the Double-A Tulsa Drillers, died Sunday after being struck by a line drive as he stood in the first-base coach’s box during a game in Arkansas.
We need to make some stringent controls over the distribution and use of baseballs and their related hardware. I think registration is a must along with a two-week waiting period. This would give pitchers and others a time to cool off before using their baseballs in anger. And obviously we shouldn't stop at baseballs. Bats are just, if not more, dangerous. If a baseball is near to a bullet, a bat surely is just a step or two away from a sword. Ban baseball, keep our people safe!
