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Winning more games with better outfield wall padding

glunn

Entry posted by glunn in Player safety ·

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I believe that injuries to outfielders could be greatly reduced if the outfield padding at Target Field were replaced with high tech padding.  

One option would be to replace the existing padding with much thicker padding that has a layer of low density foam on the outside (facing the players) and thicker densities closer to the concrete wall. I have a mattress that came in a box that has this arrangement and believe that this approach could be adapted to baseball to cut the trauma from hitting the wall by 80% or more.

Or the Twins could borrow from Hollywood stunt people and use technology based on the air bags and crash mats that lets stunt people fall from high places without injury.  https://fall-pac.com/news/fall-protection-for-stunt-men/

Based on some rough math, I believe that for $500,000 of R&D, $1 million of manufacturing cost and $500,000 of installation costs, the Twins could have an outfield wall that could cut the injury rate by more than 50%, perhaps more than 90%.  This would be peanuts compared with the loss of value if Buxton gets injured on the current wall.  To me this is a lot like adding roll cages to race cars -- a small cost for a lot of safety.  

What value of WAR will be lost if Buxton gets injured by the wall?  And I firmly believe that Royce Lewis would not have been hurt at all last year by his wall collision if the high tech wall had been in place.  

One small side benefit would be a slight home field advantage -- balls that hit the padding would tend to stick and die there, not bounce back into the field of play.  The Twins players would develop expertise in dealing with that.  Players from other teams would have to learn how to adapt, like with the ivy at Wrigley.  Another side benefit would be that players could be more aggressive when they are near the wall, knowing that it is by far the safest wall on the planet.

I believe that eventually all teams will have this.  Why not get out in front of it and maybe even develop some patents to make other teams pay to get it?

 

 

 

9 Comments

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Doctor Gast

Doctor Gast 10,566

Posted

Great idea Glunn! I've thought the same thing, surprized that why more hasn't been done pertaining to this. How safe was that old baggy wall in the Metrodome?

John Bonnes

John Bonnes 4,170

Posted

I find it kind of amazing this hasn't happened yet. It feels like it could almost be a liability issue. 

Squirrel

Squirrel 42,928

Posted

On 1/12/2023 at 4:04 PM, tony&rodney said:

How about some ivy in front of a brick wall?

To truly emulate Wrigley, you need some critters living in the ivy, too ... along with the rats in the other areas.

danielp19653

danielp19653 341

Posted

Specifically with the Twins stadium I think it might be a good idea to get rid of the gaps filled with chain link in front of the bullpens. As a fan its kind of nice to have the extra visibility, but every time I see an outfielder run into that section of wall and an arm or leg gets hooked on it weird it's terrifying. 

danielp19653

danielp19653 341

Posted

On 1/12/2023 at 4:32 AM, Doctor Gast said:

Great idea Glunn! I've thought the same thing, surprized that why more hasn't been done pertaining to this. How safe was that old baggy wall in the Metrodome?

I always wondered if that tarp was better to jump into or if Hunter was just that good at taking the impact in a way that kept him from getting hurt. It's been a while but I can't say I remember him ever having any sort of impactful injury from that wall.

glunn

glunn 7,163

Posted

On 1/14/2023 at 6:27 PM, John Bonnes said:

I find it kind of amazing this hasn't happened yet. It feels like it could almost be a liability issue. 

It's been a long time since I went to law school, but my sense is that with adequate testing (that establishes that the new wall is safer than the old wall), this should not be a liability issue, because an injured player would not be able to establish negligence.  Part of my suggested R&D budget of $500,000 would be devoted to extensive testing, first using crash dummies then using paid stunt people from Hollywood.

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