Dylan Sinclair

Professor Drake

Research Techniques and Technology

31 March 2016

Baseball VS Football: The Topic of Injuries

Abstract

Baseball and football are very dangerous sports where the player is sustainable to injury

at any moment. When it stacks up on a scale there is statistics that show more injuries will occur

in baseball than within football. This is due to a variety of reasons discussed throughout. Some of

these reasons being that baseball seasons go on longer. On average there are three times more

baseball games in a season than in football. This can result in fatigue and easier injury of

muscles. Even though football is more physically demanding on the body the long weeks

between games help players rejuvenate. This rejuvenation time is because football injuries can be

more life threatening than those of baseball. Even though more overall injuries occur in baseball.

Another possible reason for more injuries is because more muscles are used to play baseball than

football. In football the basic muscles of running and lifting are being used. Within baseball

small muscles located within the shoulders and arms are used. Examples being injury of the UCL

ligament within the arm. The possibility of football players injuring this muscle is very slim. In

fact, no football players injured it over the past several years while sixteen baseball players

injured that ligament just last year. There are simply more muscles that are untrained being used

in baseball than in football. This all can result in the high number of injuries amongst baseball
players. The possibility of getting a life-threatening injury is higher within football but when it

comes to the amount of injuries that happen over season baseball takes the gold.

Introduction

Sports are one of the biggest hobbies that people spend a lot of their lifes participating

in. There are many different types of sports. The list could go anywhere from baseball,

basketball, football, cricket, tennis, golf, and hundreds more. While playing and enjoying these

activities the athlete has to remember that there is always a risk of getting injured. Out of these

sports a couple of them stick out more than others on amount of injuries. Two of these sports are

Baseball and Football. It is strange to think of the pair being high injury sports considering they

are nothing alike. Football is a sport where heads are constantly being bashed and smashed.

Baseball is a sport where players rarely take a physical beating from an outside force. This

assumption is what persuades people into thinking a player is more likely to get injured in one

appose to the other. The risk of being injured while playing baseball is greater than the risk of

being injured while playing football for many reasons such as: use of weaker muscles, number of

games played, and overuse of muscles.

Baseball Injury Stats VS Football Injury Stats

Comparing baseball statistics to football statistics can be very tricky. The number of

people who play baseball greatly outweigh the number of people who play football. Mostly

because there are many more options for teams. For this reason, they must be compared on a

percentage statistic to greatly understand the chances of being injured. A study that was

conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in 2013 states, Among athletes ages 5 to 14,

25 percent of football players, 28 percent of baseball players were injured while playing their
respective sports (CDC pg.1). As the data concludes a baseball player is more likely to get

injured than a football player. This may not make sense to most because baseball is just not

physical.

The reason baseball players are more prone to injury is because of the variety of muscles

and ligaments being used. When it comes to playing football the chances of injuring the UCL

ligament located within the elbow is very slim. In fact, out of the 16 baseball players who injured

their UCL 0 football players injured that muscle in 2016 season according to Jon Roegele a

sports analysis writer who showed this data on October 10 of 2016. Football players use many

of the muscles that normal people use daily. This is because football is a simple sport where the

basics of it are running and tackling. While it may be a simple sport that does not make it is easy

on the body. The constant bashing of heads can lead to serious problems such as concussions.

The head trauma called concussions is the most discussed injury in football. This is probably

because it is a very serious and easily missed injury. It is so easily missed that at a survey done

by the American Academy of Pediatrics on February 13th found that out of the 32% of football

players in high school experiencing concussion symptoms only 10% were treated and examined

for them as stated in Kia Boriboon essay.

After those statistics, it is easy to see that football injuries may be the lower than baseball

injuries but it does not mean they are less dangerous. Since baseball players must use weak and

undertrained muscles every time they perform an action they can injury a lot of them. This

greater quality of muscles being used is what gives baseball the advantage of having more

injuries than that of football.

Injuries Within Baseball

 To had better understand the large amount of injuries that can occur while playing

baseball some must be listed and noted. Considering baseball uses a wide variety of small

muscles, that most people may never use if not playing the game, most will learn a completely

new vocabulary of muscles and ligaments. This is because of the motion of throwing is so

complicated. When a player begins to throw the dominant arm with the ball must reach back

creating an action potential to throw. This initial process of throwing is also known as cocking.

Once the arm is cocked back the player must then use the shoulder muscle to contract their arm

moving it forward. While doing this the player is using back, shoulder, upper arm, lower arm,

core, and leg muscles. As the arm is brought forward it produces a force of around 650 N as

stated by Miriam Bredella in 2008 a Tissue Oncologist from Harvard University. This extreme

amount of force being used can really put some wear on the muscles. This force continues and

even increases as the throwing action is brought to a halt. The area of the body that takes most of

this force is the shoulder. This is also a good reason as to why 44% of injured baseball players

are pitchers according to Orthopedic surgeon Matthew Thompson as said in March of 2012.

The shoulder contains the most valuable tools needed to throw a baseball. Most

physicians and baseball players refer to this as the rotator cuff. According to orthopedic nurse

Mary Smith the muscles and tendons that make up the rotator cuff are the supraspinatus,

infraspinatus, teres minor, and subscapularis as discussed on page 492 of the article Rotator Cuff

Tears. All the muscles and ligaments within the rotator cuff are all at risk to be injured from

throwing a baseball. There are three different ways it can be torn according to Smith in the same

article as she states,

External Impingement this happens when the distance between the coracoid and the lesser

tuberosity is decreased and this causes a tear within the rotator cuff Internal Impingement
this is caused by repetitive impaction of the posterior greater tuberosity on the

supraspinatus/infraspinatus junction and posterosuperior glenoid results in internal or

posterosuperior impingement resulting in a rotator cuff tear Tensile overload when the axial

tendon strength is greater than that of the bone, but violent stress at the rotator during

deceleration phase of throwing cycle is eccentric causing a tear within the rotator cuff(pg. 492-

493).

Now keep in mind these are just injuries that happen with the rotator cuff. There are many more

injuries that happen in other parts of the body while playing baseball.

Another very common example of baseball injuries is the breaking of the hamate bone.

This is a small hook like bone located within the palm of the hand. It is broken by many athletes

who use the same swinging motion as baseball players do. This injury occurs only when a player

is swinging the bat. It can also happen in two different ways according to Frank McCue in 1997

as he explains, Fractures can result from direct or indirect trauma (pg. 2). In direct trauma it

occurs while the nob of the bat is being jammed into the players hand while swinging causing the

bone to break. The indirect is a little trickier. It involves forces of ligaments being jerked by the

swinging motion causing the hamate bone to break under this force. After injury, the players

must go through a surgical procedure which usually consists of having the bone removed. In

some rare cases professional players get the bone removed before they break it to avoid injury.

Breaking the tiny bone within the human hand may not seem like a serious injury but is one that

can disable players for several months. This injury is a hitters biggest nightmare.

A pitchers biggest nightmare is hidden within the two words known as Tommy John.

Tommy John is a tear of the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL). This is a ligament located within

the elbow supporting the humerus and the ulna bones keeping them in line. It is a very common
injury in baseball because when preparing to throw the forearm and upper arm make a 90-degree

angle before being whipped vigorously causing strain on this ligament. Since the ligaments job is

to keep the bones in line any sort of displacement or yanking motion can easily damage or tear

the ligament. This type of action is exactly what throwing the baseball entails. This injury gets

even more common as the motion of the athlete becomes crazier. Physical Therapy Products of

Los Angeles did a study on the number of players who underwent Tommy John surgery in Los

Angeles. The numbers are appalling as they claim, 444 patients underwent surgery to repair the

UCL between 2002 and 2011 During that period, the total volume of UCL surgeries increased

nearly 200% (pg. 3). With the continuous growing competitiveness and the players pushing

themselves to the limit the number will continue to grow. This is a major factor in baseball

having a higher percent of injuries than in football. Also, football injuries are declining because

the leagues are taking action to try and prevent them from happening so often. This means that as

baseball injuries will grow significantly more over football injuries.

How Baseball Injuries Stack Up Against That of Football

Baseball players are clearly more sustainable to injuries because there are clearly more

that can occur. Three great examples of injuries shown above are not seen in other sports. Even

though football quarterbacks throw the ball regularly they do not throw it as fast or as many

times as baseball pitchers. Knowing this helps conclude that baseball injuries are more likely to

happen. Baseball players are not as sustainable to basic injuries such as a concussion. A study

done by Kinesiologist Tracey Covassin in September of 2003 concluded that only 1.2% of high

school baseball players have been removed from the game because of a concussion and 3.6% of

high school football players were removed. This proves that when it comes to basic anatomy

parts used in everyday life football players are more likely to injure that body part.
 This idea of seeing all the similar injuries occurring within football is what convinces the

population into thinking football players are more likely to be injured. This phenomenon is called

availability heuristic in psychology. Another reason people most likely think more injuries occur

in football is due to them happening more often in practice. Since baseball players play almost

three times the amount of games as football players do injuries obviously can occur over longer

periods of time. Within football they only occur over a short season usually consisting of fifteen

games. This means that most of football injuries occur during practice. A respected researcher

named Jennifer Hootman in 2007 found that, Football had the highest injury rates for practices

at (9.6 injuries per 1000 A-Es) Baseball had the lowest rate in practice (1.9 injuries per 1000

A-Es) (pg 313). As the data shows football injuries do occur at a higher rate but there are not as

many players injured at the end of the season.

How Preventions Could Change Injuries for Years to Come

As of right now many rules are being added with both baseball and football to hopefully

limit the injuries that are occurring every year. Examples of this are shown in neurologist Charles

Tators essay written August 6th of 2013, Secondary prevention: Every person suspected of

having concussions should be evaluated by physician, remove concussed person from play, Use

6-step return-to-play protocol to hasten recover, and to prevent second-impact syndrome and

cerebral swelling (pg. 997). These steps in preventions are things that did not use to happen in

previous years. These simple steps of prevention can help players play longer and live longer. As

medical science increases these preventions will only continue to be added decreasing injuries.

Baseball has started doing the same thing. Less than fifteen years ago, it was okay to

collide with the catcher in baseball in order for the runner to avoid being called out. This rule

was completely taken out of the game which significantly reduced injuries. As the data found by
John Wilckens an orthopedic surgeon on October 2015 was, The average rate was 2.75%

injuries per 1000 AEs. Of those 135 injuries, 20 were collision injuries (pg. 221). This means

that a very large portion of injuries that were occurring within baseball were due to this one part

of the game. Removing the collision rule significantly dropped the rate injuries occur. It also

leads to other rules being put in place such as a sliding rule to help protect infielders legs from

being broken by getting slid into.

The baseball league did not stop their either. They continued by considering how they

could reduce the harm by the actual baseball itself. In a research study done by Loren Yamamota

in 2001 and her team who is all part of the Hawaii department of pediatrics researched how

harder baseballs versus softer baseballs could affect play and injuries of players. The data is

interesting as Laruen states, We found that the harder baseballs caused a statistically significant

higher perforation frequency of the aluminum foil than the softer balls (pg. 199). This suggested

that harder baseballs do cause more damage overall. For this reason, in youth baseball softer

balls have been put in play to help young players reduce getting injured while trying to learn the

game.

As of right now baseball injures still have the advantage on occurring more times

throughout the year than football but this is changing. As baseball progresses on a new medical

advance figure out a more proper form to throwing and recovery this injury may come to an

almost complete stop. All the injuries occurring right now in baseball are either accidental or

from doing things that are not natural and medically the world knows little about.

Conclusion
 When it comes to discussing sports, there is no doubt injuries is not a topic left out. The

reality is that some sports are simply just more dangerous than others. Baseball is a sport where

not a lot of seriously dangerous injuries occur but injuries occur more in baseball than other

sports. This is compared to football. Football as shown throughout the essay as a very physically

dangerous sport. There is no doubt every time you step on the field that there is a possible chance

you may die. While the possibility of death rises in football it brings a lesser chance that you will

overall be injured. Baseball uses many different muscles within the human bodies that are simply

not trained well. This makes those muscles more sustainable to injury and for that reason more

injuries occur in baseball than football.

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