About the Padded Balls

I thought I'd point out a few things about the padded balls that our kids play and practice with. The padded t-ball balls benefit the kids in a couple of ways.

First, they're padded, so they probably hurt a little less and they also don't bruise quite as badly when one of our kids takes one in the arm. The big safety benefit, though, is that the padded balls don't jump off the bat quite like a hard ball does. Lower hit velocities mean safer infielders, and safer infielders means our daisy pickers (my Zoe included) are safer when they play in the infield.

Our league in Texas played hard balls at the T-Ball level. During a game, I stopped a line drive from hitting our pitcher in the forehead. It came at him so fast, he simply didn't have time to react, and he was one of quicker and more acrobatic kids on the team. I offer that story in support of the idea that the benefits are there.

They have their drawbacks, though. The big difference I've seen is that the padded balls don't hop like a hard ball does, especially when a kid has to field a one-hop hit to 3rd/SS/2nd/1st on the dirt. Our kids may have some adjusting to do at the coach pitch level, but I think that most tee ball players don't spend enough time fielding grounders to develop much of an instinct.

I also once had a kindergartener throw a hard ball at my face from 5 feet away. (He was just giving me the ball, like I asked.) I got a fat lip out of the deal, but I survived. We coaches and parents may wind up glad for ourselves that the ball is padded, too.