Nicholls Rochelle L, Elliott Bruce C, Miller Karol
School of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
Sports Med. 2004;34(1):17-25. doi: 10.2165/00007256-200434010-00003.
Baseball has one of the highest impact injury rates of all sports. These injuries are primarily attributed to impact by a ball after it has been hit, pitched or thrown. This paper will review the incidence and causal factors for impact injuries in baseball. Attention is given to the design and material properties of bats, in light of evidence suggesting balls hit into the infield from metal bats can reach velocities potentially lethal to defensive players. The distribution of bat mass along the long axis of the implement appears a major factor in the greater performance potential of metal bats over wooden bats of equal length and mass. The dynamic behaviour of baseballs has also been implicated in the severity of head and chest injuries experienced by players. Balls of greatly reduced stiffness have been introduced for junior play, but debate still remains over their performance and impact characteristics. The behaviour of the ball during high-speed impact with the bat has been the subject of relatively limited research, and the effect of manipulating baseball material properties to decrease batted-ball velocity is unclear. The value of batting helmets is evident in the observed reduction of head injuries in baseball, but the use of protective vests to decrease the incidence and severity of cardio-thoracic trauma appears to be contraindicated.
棒球是所有运动中撞击受伤率最高的运动之一。这些损伤主要归因于球在被击打、投出或抛出后产生的撞击。本文将综述棒球运动中撞击损伤的发生率及相关成因。鉴于有证据表明，用金属球棒击出后进入内场的球可能达到对防守球员具有潜在致命性的速度，因此本文还将关注球棒的设计和材料特性。沿球棒长轴的质量分布似乎是金属球棒比同等长度和质量的木棒具有更大性能潜力的一个主要因素。棒球的动态特性也与球员头部和胸部受伤的严重程度有关。为青少年比赛引入了刚度大幅降低的球，但关于其性能和撞击特性仍存在争议。球在与球棒高速撞击时的行为相对来说研究较少，而且通过改变棒球材料特性来降低击球速度的效果尚不清楚。棒球运动中观察到的头部受伤减少现象明显体现了击球头盔的价值，但使用防护背心来降低心肺创伤的发生率和严重程度似乎并不适宜。
