Posted on 03/23/2010 12:13:45 PM PDT by Notoriously Conservative
With all the recent news about injuries related to splintering maple baseball bats, do you think the MLB should ban them? Yes or no, and why? I'd be interetested to hear your thoughts.
Ban aluminum bats
You actually bring up a good point with that photo in that maple bats CAN BE LESS LIKELY to splinter, depending upon where the break is. I’ve heard the MORE LIKELY to spliter argument more commonly, but I beleive the capacity to injure is far less of a function of splintering and far more of a function of weight and the resulting ability to travel longer distances.
Yes. Ash worked fine for the first 140 years.
I would agree. I think you get less shattering from a Maple bat ... but you’re going to get larger pieces that fly farther, and are more likely to maim.
If an Ash bat splinters/ shatters into a dozen pieces ... none of them are going to have any weight at all, and none are going to fly very far.
If a maple bat splits into two pieces along the grain of the bat (like in the picture), the head of the bat will have some mass to it, may go significantly farther into the infield, and will have a blade-like end that could cause more injury.
SnakeDoc
And you would replace them with what????
On behalf of Mariano Rivera, I say yes. He’ll be breaking them long after he gets too old to jump out of the way.
If they don’t they should most certainly do it because if they don’t the healthcare costs will skyrocket, think of the health care system.
Trade in my Louisville Slugger for aluminum!
They can’t be serious. You’re right then only liberals and other criminals will have them. Another black-market industry, like guns.
I'd be willing to bet that the root cause of splintering is more of a function of inadequate or uneven drying than in the type of wood itself, though the natural saps would, of course, contribute to the functions of wood aging.
I remember seeing a progrqam on how they made the famed Louisville sluggers as a boy-- major care put into selecting the wood and aging it properly. Just knowing how companies think today on keeping low inventories and rushing products through the market, I'm almost certain nowhere near the same care is put into making the modern bat, maple, ash or hickory notwithstanding.
Metal bats that are subject to performance limiting specifications is the way to go.
Reduces costs and would enhance safety.
If NASCAR can limit the performance of cars for safety reasonn certainly the same can be done for baseball.
I think the issue here is traditional hickory versus maple.
My understanding is that maple bats tend to break along the grain, and ash bats tend to break at the handle.
I would think that the type of breakage has a lot to do with the hardness of the underlying wood. Hard maple bats don’t break all the way through, they break at weak-points along the grain; softer ash bats break all the way through at the weakest point on the bat (the handle).
SnakeDoc
Hickory or white ash?
Gay's, have a lot in common with baseball bats.
I dunno why I didn't see that....
LOL!!
Inspired by GraceG, I direct your attention to clause 83675.47 subparagraph Z.45(c)3 of the new Obamacare bill that clearly gives authority over the issue of baseball bats to the death panel as authorized in Section 1233.
Sammy Sosa was just ahead of the times........LOL!
Don't you mean George Brett?
Oops, I was getting corking and pine tar confused...
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