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Saturday, October 21
Body armor might soon get outlawed
By Jayson Stark
ESPN.com
NEW YORK -- Long, long ago, in a very different time, it was the knights of the round table who lost their shining armor. Now it could be the hitters of the round baseball.
Sandy Alderson, MLB's executive vice president for baseball operations, said Saturday night that MLB hopes to put an end to the increasingly hot trend toward hitters marching to the plate wearing more pads than a nose guard.
"We'd like to eliminate the body armor," Alderson said before Game 1 of the World Series, "unless there's a legitimate reason for wearing it."
As offensive numbers continue to soar, MLB is attempting to come to the defense of the pitchers on two fronts, Alderson said.
The first is to redefine the strike zone -- an issue that will be addressed throughout the offseason in several different sessions with the umpires. The second is to try to keep hitters from showing so little fear of crowding the plate by toning down their armor supply.
"We think it introduces an advantage to the hitter," Alderson said. "When you add some of the other advantages, like the strike zone and so forth, I think you're taking some of the initiative away from the pitchers."
In the case of someone like Jeff Bagwell, who has had two seasons ended by being hit in the hand or wrist, Alderson said MLB would obviously be sympathetic to "legitimate compromises."
"But it's the guys who go up there with full protection, from their wrist to their shoulders, that are going too far," he said. "Next thing you know, they'll have full Kevlar protection."
Alderson said padding wouldn't be eliminated completely. But the rule MLB would seek, he said, is: "You can't have anything hard on your arm. You can have a soft pad, but not a hard pad -- nothing that could make you impervious to (being hit by) the ball."
There also have been calls for the raising of the mound to help restore some balance toward the pitchers. But Alderson said that idea "is still on the back burner."
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