But perhaps the strangest phobia we've heard of is sidonglobophobia. It's the extreme fear of cotton balls - usually these individuals can't touch them, and are particularly terrified of the sound cotton balls make when torn apart.
"The main differences between a baseball swing and softball swing are as follows: A baseball swing is normally done with the weight back and the front leg straight. The hitter swings toward the ball making the shape of a U with their swing and finishing high on their shoulder with their bat.
Tips to Work Through Your Fear and Live Your Life
- Allow yourself to sit with your fear for 2-3 minutes at a time. Breathe with it and say, “It's okay.
- Write down the things you are grateful for.
- Remind yourself that your anxiety is a storehouse of wisdom.
- Exercise.
- Use humor to deflate your worst fears.
Professional boxers aren't “scared” of being hit. It happens all the time. Professionals spend a lot of time in the amateurs getting hit. Sparring in the amateurs and pros helps some with preparation.
The average major league fastball, by most accounts is somewhere between 90 and 92 mph. Other studies cite the fastest underhand pitch thrown by a ladies softball player capping at around 75 mph.
Consider the act of hitting an MLB-level fastball. The ball is traveling in excess of 90 mph, spinning around 20 times per second. Put simply, that's super hard!
It's a shocking feeling with almost instantaneous numbing of the area. You feel the pain, you know it's there, but you also sense the endorphin response almost immediately. You instinctively take all pressure off that area.
A hit-by-pitch occurs when a batter is struck by a pitched ball without swinging at it. He is awarded first base as a result. Strikes supersede hit-by-pitches, meaning if the umpire rules that the pitch was in the strike zone or that the batter swung, the HBP is nullified.
Many consist of minor sprains or muscle strain, but the most serious injuries come from getting hit with a baseball or a baseball bat, particularly on the head, eyes or chest. A conk on an unprotected head with a baseball can cause a concussion or intracranial bleeding.
By 110 milliseconds, the bat, moving at up to 80 mph, carries too much inertia to be stopped. A 90-mph fastball can reach home plate in 400 milliseconds -- or four-tenths of a second. But a batter has just a quarter-second to identify the pitch, decide whether to swing, and start the process.
Now, as to a pitcher hitting someone on purpose, well, you'd have to throw behind the batter's head and then assume he'd back INTO the pitch, which can happen. Even at that, the odds of a pitcher determining to kill someone with a pitch and then succeeding at it seems slim at best. Technically, yes. Practically, no.
Somewhere between Maldonado's bat and Alvarez's glove the cover peeled off the baseball. In a 2014 game, the Brewers' Martin Maldonado hit the cover off a baseball in a game against the Pirates. With a runner on first in the sixth inning, Maldonado hit a ground ball to Pirates' third baseman, Pedro Alvarez.
People who don't throw and catch might not get it. As the ball approaches your hand - inches away - you pull back your hands a little. So, catching a home run ball might sting, but that 110 mph exit speed has lost plenty of steam after it travels 350 feet or more.
