Life in the Fastpitch Lane

Life in the Fastpitch Lane

Thoughts, ideas, tips, and general musings on the game of fastpitch softball.

Metal cleats in high school

This entry was posted on Monday, January 14, 2008 9:26 PM and is filed under Rules and Umpires.

In case you haven't heard by now, the National High School Federation (Federation for short) has ruled that metal cleats will be allowed in high school softball beginning this year. The Federation is the ruling body for HS sports, not to be confused with ruling body for a large group of planets on Star Trek.

I haven't heard the particulars on why the rule was changed. Maybe someone who reads this blog has the actual answer. A few of us were talking tonight and I speculated that this was sort of a Title IX issue. Metal cleats have been allowed in HS baseball at least since the days I was playing, so maybe this is just a way of making things more even. Then again, do the boys have to wear face cages on their helmets?

In any case, I think that metal cleats are a bad idea. First there's the safety issue for fielders. As I've mentioned before, some are taught to block access to the base with their legs. Having a baserunner coming into a leg with metal cleats is not exactly a good idea.

That's not the worst of it, though. The big risk is catching a cleat and spraining an ankle — or possibly popping a knee or breaking a leg. Before you think I'm a total wimp about this, I just heard a story about a male youth player in metal cleats breaking his ankle trying to stop and go back to the previous base.

The parent telling the story said she's heard that metal cleats are fine on a well-manicured field. But how many of us get to play on those? I've watched high school games on fields that were a risk no matter what kind of shoes you wore, much less high-grip cleats. My teams have certainly competed on fields that were even worse. It just doesn't seem like a good idea.

Especially when you consider that the #1 injury among young female athletes is a torn ACL. So now you're going to add in equipment that makes it even easier to pop that ACL. It just doesn't make sense.

It'll be interesting to see whether the number of injuries goes up this year. And if so, whether the Federation gives any thought to going back to a ban on metal cleats. Stay tuned.

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Monday, March 03, 2008 8:16 AM s garrels wrote:
This past week-end my worst fears of allowing girls High School Fast pitch to wear metal cleats came true. Before the season began we were told of this "rule" change and I was adamant about my concern of the increased possibilities for injury then and after seeing the affects of being spiked I am more so now. I have played over 40 years of baseball/softball and have used both plastic and steel spikes and can tell you there is not much of a difference when running. My daughter sustained 40 stitches in her shin due to metal cleats this past week-end and I can assure you as a parent there is nothing more horrible than seeing your child suffer from the "gash" that is caused by the use of metal cleats. A few weeks ago she had been slid into and took a blow off her knee from plastic cleats which caused a severe bruise in which she was able to play a few days later, if the girl had been wearing metal cleats I cringe to think of what damage may have been done. I think the administration needs to take a good hard look at the severity of injuries caused by the use of metal cleats and reconsider this ruling. I pray that no other parent nor child has to experience what we did this past week-end by the use of metal cleats.
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Monday, March 03, 2008 8:54 PM Ken Krause wrote:
Sorry to hear about the injury. Hope your daughter has a speedy recovery. No question that 40 stitches is a serious injury. Glad nothing vital was hit.

As a high school baseball player I remember wearing metal cleats. Of course we also used wood bats, not because we were trying to be trendy but because that's all there was. It was a bad idea then and it's a bad idea now.

The game already is dangerous enough, especially with the ball jumping off of $300 bats toward players standing 30-40 feet away. Why add to the danger? Hopefully the Federation will come to its senses and outlaw metal cleats for both the boys and the girls. With all the high-tech materials available today there's simply no need to go to metal.
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Sunday, March 30, 2008 8:48 AM ANH wrote:
I am so sorry. My daughter too was seriously hurt. Her cleats hung and she broke her bones in two places. We never knew we needed to warn her about the differences in traction and sticking when uses metal vs plastic cleats. Quite honestly when the coach had the booster club buy them for the entire team , he didnt know to teach them how they were different either.
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Sunday, March 30, 2008 1:46 PM Ken Krause wrote:
Sorry to hear that. What a shame for her, especially so early in the season. Likely that this will take out her summer too.

Hopefully there will be enough complaints that the Federation will re-think their decision, or at least put out some information to coaches warning them that there are some additional risks involved. I wonder if that would've swayed your coach's decision on acquiring them?

It's too late for your daughter, but thanks for sharing the story with others. The more people learn about this the better of a decision they can make. A little extra traction v. a couple of broken bones is not a good trade-off.
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Sunday, April 06, 2008 7:55 AM john wrote:
plastic vs metal,
slide and get your hand stepped on bruised sore hand vs stiches and out of game. get cleated in the calf bruised and some pain vs 40 stitches torn socks and out for several weeks. catcher has a foot stick turning to block a wild pitch falls down misses ball vs falls down breaks ankle may never play again. coach teaches girls to sharpen metal cleats creates more severe injuries potential to sever large arteries in catchers legs possibly causing death plastic zero metal it could happen. with the newer designs of composite cleats if you slip with them you will slip with metal the biggest advantage is in a hard infield or outfield as the will penetrate better which can also be a disadvantage.
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Sunday, April 06, 2008 9:15 PM Ken Krause wrote:
John, you make some great points. The difference in consequences is significant. I'm not sure what the Federation thinks it gained in approving them. Perhaps they're trying to make things equal between the boys and girls. If that's the case they should go the other way as far as I'm concerned.

They're concerned enough about safety to require face cages on helmets and to yell at warm-up catchers for not wearing masks, but they're ok with metal cleats. Go figure.

By the way, I saw a muddy, rough field over the weekend. It was just primed for a serious injury. Fortunately, either no one had metal cleats or caught them if they did. But it was definitely a risk.
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