Safety

Nick Ghantous
Little League Baseball Canada National Safety Officer

Another year is upon us and at this time, I would like to take the opportunity to remind everyone of a few things to keep in mind in order to enjoy a safe season.

Once again, there have been some changes to bat regulations. Please make sure that you are up to date on what is currently acceptable and what is not. The latest information is available at the Little League International website – www.littleleague.org. Just go to the site and click on the home page where it says, Bat Info Here.

While you’re on the Little League home page, you can also have a look at ASAP, which stands for A Safety Awareness Program. To do so, simply move the mouse pointer over the word programs on the left side of the home page and a sub-menu will appear, which includes Safety Program (ASAP). Clicking on this will open the program. Although there are a couple of items in there that apply only to the U.S., you will see a comprehensive, thirteen point outline of what constitutes a good plan. Leagues can use this outline as a starting point for building their own, league-specific plan.

As mentioned in my message of a couple of years ago, one of the topics that has moved to the forefront in sports over the last few years is recognition and treatment of possible concussions and head injuries. To reiterate Little League Baseball Canada’s position, when a player has been diagnosed with a concussion, he/she may not return to play until written consent by a doctor has been provided. If a player sustains an injury during a game or practice that results in a loss of consciousness, no matter how brief, he/she will be removed from the field of play and will not be allowed to return until written consent by a doctor has been provided. If, following contact of any nature, a player exhibits signs of a possible head injury such as blurred/double vision, dizziness, headaches, etc., he/she will be removed from the field and will not be allowed to return until written consent by a doctor has been provided.

Finally, I invite anyone who has any questions or needs assistance to contact me at nghantous@shaw.ca. Hope you all have a great season!