Leadership in Youth Baseball: Awareness of Health & Safety Issues

Society has a great emotional attachment to children and their overall health and safety. Youth sports organizations, directors, coaches, and parents are no different. Participation in sports such as baseball provides great physical opportunities for the youth population in this country. Unfortunately, children can and do get hurt while playing baseball. For some, these injuries can cause a life long physical impairment or possible death. The purpose of this study was to examine Little League Baseball and Babe Ruth Baseball and attempt to determine if these youth baseball leagues are implementing required and recommended standards to ensure the health and safety of all players. The research design was quantitative and included youth baseball directors that were involved with either Little League Baseball or Babe Ruth Baseball Leagues. There were 900 email letters and online surveys sent randomly via the web-based Zoomerang service to youth baseball directors across the country. Of the 900 surveys sent out, 348 surveys were completed. In a breakdown of youth baseball leagues, 215 of the completed surveys were from Little League Baseball directors and 133 of the completed surveys were from Babe Ruth Baseball directors. The online survey was designed to answer four research questions. The research questions focused on the required health and safety standards of the governing leagues, the recommended standards given by the National Athletic Trainers Association (NATA), implementation of the required and recommended standards, and leadership skills involving health and safety in youth baseball. In summary, this study was the first of its kind to examine the health and safety standards in youth baseball on a national level. It was also the first study to use the directors from the two largest youth baseball leagues in the United States. It is suggested that this study contributed to the foundation of research that connects Little League Baseball and Babe Ruth Baseball with regard to the required and recommended health and safety standards that effect their individual organizations. Furthermore, this study confirmed the importance of leadership skills in youth baseball in particular the leadership skills utilized by the directors of youth baseball organizations in Little League Baseball and Babe Ruth Baseball