baseball / little league ball question

[Alex Franke]

My boy just caught a baseball with his lower lip so we've decided to get a couple more of the soft "safety balls" to use to work up confidence again.

I noticed online that there are sold in a number of "levels" -- Level 1, Level 3, Level 5. I have no idea what the levels mean... I tried googling but I just got a slew of sites that sell them, and none of them I saw explain what the levels are...

Anyone here happen to know? Are the different levels of softness, or is it something else?

(He's just fine, by the way -- no loose teeth or anything.)

[Richard in Smithville]

Can't help with the ball question but I'm glad to hear your liitle guy is alright. My daughter caught a ball to the lip in softball years ago but getting the batter out was more important to her than getting upset. She cried once she beat the batter to first base.

[Raffi]

How old is he? How did he get hit? I would just play catch with him asap to build his confidence back. Rubber balls hurt too...

[Ed62]

If he really likes to play, I doubt he'll need a confidence builder. When my oldest boy was in Little League, we were playing catch in front of the house. Since he was pretty good with the glove, I didn't hold back when I threw the ball to him. One went off the tip of his glove, and hit him in the eye. His eye was swollen to the point where he looked like something out of a movie. He was temporarily legally blind, but the doc told us he would probably be OK. When he got home from the hospital, he wanted to go out to play ball with the neighborhood kids. Of course we didn't allow that, but he never lost his confidence. He was back playing in no time.

Sorry, can't help you with an answer to your question about the difference in the balls.

Ed

[Uncle Cracker]

The level designations refer to compression level of the balls, with Level 1 being the softest (for the young'uns) up to Level 5, which is the firmest (closest to regulation hardness). Hope this helps...

[Alex Franke]

Ed62, that's a great story! This was his first accident really, and he had that sort-of "I knew it was cute and furry, but I didn't know it would BITE me!" type of reaction. I didn't want to make a big deal out of it, but I thought a softer ball might take the edge off getting out there again right away...

How old is he? How did he get hit? I would just play catch with him asap to build his confidence back. Rubber balls hurt too...

He's 5 and was hit playing catch with me. We cleaned him up, ran out to get a couple of the "level 3" balls, and then got right back to playing catch again. He's a little more cautious, but I think by the end of the week he'll have made up any lost ground.

The level designations refer to compression level of the balls, with Level 1 being the softest (for the young'uns) up to Level 5, which is the firmest (closest to regulation hardness). Hope this helps...

Perfect. That's what I suspected -- thanks.