A fastball hurtling out of control toward a batter's head - a common scene in baseball games between youngsters - is a frightening sight for players, coaches and parents.
From 1973 to 1980, thousands of young athletes were injured seriously and 17 were killed as a result of being hit by a baseball, according to statistics from the Consumer Product Safety Commission of Bethesda, Md.To address this problem, a family-owned Japanese sporting goods maker is introducing a unique rubber baseball to the United States.
The ball, named "Kenko" for its Tokyo maker, Nagase Kenko Corp., consists of two layers of pure rubber coating and a pressurized air-filled center. Regular baseballs have a cork at the core, which is wrapped by tightly wound twine and then covered with a cowhide skin.
Upon impact, the Kenko ball's air-filled center compresses to form a "cushion" that absorbs shock - thereby limiting the chance for serious injury, the company says.
When a Kenko ball is hit by a bat swung by a child, it will travel the same distance as a conventional baseball, said a company spokesman. But when harder hit by an adult, the greater compression causes the ball to travel roughly 30 to 40 feet less than models made of cork and twine.
A pure rubber coating makes the Kenko ball easy for younger players, who have yet to develop fundamental skills to grip and throw, the company said.
It retails in the United States for less than $4, which is less than the cost of conventional baseballs.
"Most youngsters in Japan have grown up using a Kenko baseball," said Jiro Nagase, president of Nagase, adding the ball has been used for more than 50 years in Japan by about 90 percent of the baseball-playing youngsters.
"Over (those) years of use in Japan, no serious injury attributed to a thrown or batted ball has been reported."
Kenko, which means "healthy" in Japanese, is designed for use mainly by players under the age of 12. In the United States, the ball has been used in conjunction with the "Rookie League" baseball program, a concept approved by major league baseball teams such as the Chicago Cubs and the New York Mets for the development of young ballplayers from the ages of 6 to 12.
The teams in the program use a pitching machine instead of a pitcher so that youngsters will not be subjected to a wild pitch.
"I like this one better than a hardball," Jason Derosier, an 11-year-old first baseman of the New Britain Boys Club in New Britain, Conn., said about the Kenko ball, after he played an intra-team scrimmage.
"It's easier to hit the ball," he said. "If it hits you, it does not hurt you much."
Derosier's team, which consists of players aged 5 through 12, used Kenko balls as part of the Rookie League program sponsored by the New Britain Red Sox, the Double-A farm team of the Boston Red Sox.
"There is always a fear of getting hit with the baseball. That is the most common factor that turns the youngsters away from baseball. With the Kenko baseball, we eliminate that," said Tom Mullings, assistant physical director to the ball club.
As the fear of injury is removed, the company claims, the players play with more confidence and they have more fun - the primary goal of youth baseball.