Catastrophic Injury Survey In Amateur Baseball

Amateur baseball, like any sport, entails some element of risk of catastrophic injury. However, the frequency of such catastrophic injuries is surprisingly low. To summarize, the overall rate of catastrophic injuries such as deaths and disabilities is only one per one million participants.

Our insurance clients, Dixie Youth Baseball and Dixie Boys / Majors Baseball,  participate in this study by completing a survey form on an annual basis that requires the reporting of any catastrophic injury. Other participating organizations include American Legion, Little League, Babe Ruth, PONY, NAIA, NCAA, National Baseball Congress, National Federation Of State High School Associations, National Junior College Athletic Association, National Association Of Police Athletic Leagues, AABC, Cape Cod Baseball, and NABF.

The final report includes eighteen years of data collection from 1989 through 2006. Participation numbers for that period of time included 82,687,876 amateur baseball players in 13 organizations. Catastrophic injuries for that same period of time included 39 fatalities, 26 disability injuries, and 30 injuries with complete recovery. The catastrophic injury rate for the eighteen years is 0.11 injuries per 100,000 participants or approximately one injury per 1,000,000 participants. This figure is very low. The eighteen year injury rate for fatalities was 0.05 per 100,000 participants, 0.03 for disability injuries, and 0.04 for serious or recovery injuries.

See Report by USA Baseball Medical And Safety Committee and National Center For Catastrophic Sports Injury Research: http://mlb.mlb.com/usa_baseball/article.jsp?story=medsafety12