By Rick Shapiro, Brain Injury Attorney

Baseball is taking extra precautions to protect players against brain and head injuries with a new series of protocols adopted by Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association.

The new joint policy related to concussions, includes the creation of a seven-day disabled list, MLB.com reports. A committee of experts created the policy. It dictates how concussions, which are sometimes called closed head injuries, are diagnosed initially and will be used to determine when players and umpires can return to the field following a concussion. The new policy goes into effect on Opening Day.

If you hit your head in a fall, accident or in a physical assault, you may suffer concussion-like symptoms known as post concussion syndrome, for weeks or months afterward, while traumatic brain injuries can cause memory loss. Mild traumatic brain injuries are less obvious. However, a mild traumatic brain injury can cause permanent damage. There is a increasing body of evidence that these concussion-type injuries, if untreated, can lead to other complications such as Parkinson-type diseases and dementia.

Increasingly, schools and sports authorities are taking action to learn more about the symptoms of concussion. Steps have been taken in Virginia (VA) in recent months to improve the safety of baseball, including a ban on high performance aluminum bats.

A batted baseball regularly travels at speeds of almost 100 mph. Balls coming off BESR-rated — ball exit speed ratio– bats easily reach speeds of 105 mph or greater. And the death of Double A first base coach Mike Coolbaugh during a Tulsa Drillers game in 2007 demonstrated how dangerous baseball can be. Increased the speed at which the ball enters play, and players and coaches in the field can have almost no chance to protect themselves from serious injuries to their heads, eyes, arms, legs or bodies.

Our firm has handled a larger number of cases involving baseball. In one case, which we recently concluded, the manufacturer and the seller of a baseball pitching machine had improperly designed their product in such a way as to cause a facial injury to the athlete using the equipment. This kind of product liability case requires a showing that the people who made and distributed the machinery had either designed it improperly or produced a product defectively in a way that would cause injury to someone when used normally. A permanent injury to a person’s eye occurred in this instance.

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About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper Lewis & Appleton is a law firm whose attorneys focus on injury and accident law, and we have experience handling traumatic brain injury and general head injury cases. Check out our case results to see for yourself. Our primary office  in Virginia Beach, Virginia (VA). Our attorneys achieved the largest verdict in Virginia’s history for a brain-damaged client in 2000. Our injury lawyers also host an extensive injury law video library on Youtube. Furthermore, we proudly edit the Virginia Beach Injuryboard and Norfolk Injuryboard as pro bono public information services. While not every brain injury case meets our criteria, if you or a loved one is thinking about taking legal action against a possibly at-fault person or company who caused your injury, call our office at (800) 752-0042 for a free consultation. If you cannot get through due to high call volume, be sure to leave a voicemail. We will return your call.