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MLB Umpire Injured by Foul Ball Awarded $775K in Suit Against Sporting Goods Company
A District of Columbia Superior Court jury has ordered the Wilson Sporting Goods Co. to pay $775,000 to a Major League Baseball umpire injured by a foul ball that knocked off his Wilson-made face mask.

Ed Hickox, who has since resumed his duties as an MLB umpire, suffered a concussion and several broken bones after a foul ball struck him in the jaw while he was umpiring a Washington Nationals’ game at RFK Stadium on May 14, 2005. The protective face mask Hickox was wearing at the time – manufactured by Wilson and given to Hickox for free by a Wilson representative – flipped off of his head upon impact.

Hickox sued Wilson, claiming the company was responsible not only because the mask failed to protect his face as advertised, but also because the company failed to tell Hickox that the company had not tested the mask with the same rigor they used to test hockey face masks.

“An ordinary customer would expect the umpire’s mask, built to protect the umpire’s face from stray baseballs, not to harm Plaintiff when a baseball strikes the mask,” Hickox wrote in his complaint.

Hickox was represented by Patrick Regan and Paul Cornoni of Washington’s Regan Zambri & Long. Regan, in a telephone interview today, said he was not surprised the jury ruled on Friday in Hickox’s favor, since Wilson maintained that using field testing – that is, seeing how the mask held up while it was worn by umpires and catchers – was sufficient testing.

“They were using the umpires and catchers as human guinea pigs,” Regan said.

Timothy Fizer of Krause, Fizer, Crogan & Lopez in Owings Mills, Md., represented the company. He said an appeal is likely.

The verdict was "obviously disappointing," Fizer said in a phone interview today. "Our position was that the mask was not defective."

Regan said he did not know how many of the face masks in question were given for free to MLB umpires and catchers or sold to the public. He did say that Wilson did do more testing on the mask following the 2005 incident, but did not reveal the results of the test or what, if any, changes were made to the mask’s design.Oakland Athletics Face Masks

Giancarlo Stanton's mask not a first

Stanton is, to Uni Watch's knowledge, the first MLB player to have a personalized element on his mask. But he's far from the first to wear a face-guard attachment on his helmet, and he's not even the first to wear a football-style mask. With that in mind, let's take a trip down memory lane and revisit a few of the ballplayers who've commingled the gridiron and the diamond by putting football-style face masks on their batting helmets:

Dave Parker, Pirates, 1978: Any discussion of specialized baseball headgear has to begin with the Cobra. After fracturing his jaw and cheekbone in a home plate collision with Mets catcher John Stearns on May 30, 1978, he returned to the lineup a few weeks later and quickly cycled through a series of bizarre-looking attempts to protect his injured face:

Gary Roenicke, Orioles, 1980: After being hit in the face by a pitch, Roenicke wore a partial two-bar football mask similar to Valentine's, only Roenicke's wrapped around a bit more of his face and was painted black, to match the Orioles' color scheme.

Otis Nixon, Twins, 1998: Nixon played for 10 teams over 17 years, including a one-season stopover in Minnesota, where he wore an unusual mask that was sort of football-based, but there was more to it than that. He is, to Uni Watch's knowledge, the last MLB player to wear anything approaching a football-style mask on the field.

Most other players who've added extra facial protection to their helmets have worn the basic (and rather boring-looking) plastic attachments we're now used to seeing. A partial list of such players includes Marlon Byrd, Mike Devereaux, Chase Headley, Jason Heyward, David Justice, Terrence Long, Kevin Seitzer and Terry Steinbach, among many others.New York Yankees Face Masks

"We're trying to double down on (preventing) high-risk close contacts during game day," NFL chief medical officer Dr. Allen Sills said on Tuesday. "Our No. 1 priority is the health and safety of everyone involved," Sills added. "We want to be as safe as possible and that's why we go through the detailed exercise of contact tracing. That's why we go through the detailed exercise of identifying high-risk contacts. We continue to consider that every one of our 32 clubs are vulnerable to infection every single day we're in business, just like all of us are in the country right now and we have to be extremely vigilant in the measures that we know right now mitigate risks."MLB Face Masks

New York Yankees face mask, These new MLB Gameday face masks are the perfect accessory for baseball fans, Where to get them

Major League Baseball is back and it’s been an exciting week for the players and fans. With fans having their favorite sport back on television even if they are unable to attend the games, you can always represent your favorite team.

MLB players are wearing these awesome MLB Gameday Collection face coverings and scarves, you can find some images below and more information about these MLB face covers and scarves here.

These New York Yankees Gameday Gaiter Scarves will keep your neck covered with lightweight, breathable material that will help you represent your favorite player whenever you put it on.

While the coverings allow for breathability, they are for personal use only and are not intended for a medical purpose.

Cover up while you represent your favorite team in this MLB Gameday Collection face coverings!

On Wednesday, one day after the NFL announced the changes, the 49ers shut down their facility due to COVID-19 test results. For now, they are still set to host the Packers on Thursday Night Football.

[Reklama]