Posted on 07/30/2007 9:06:00 PM PDT by gpapa
The first-base coach for the minor league Tulsa Drillers died last week after being struck in the head by a foul ball hit off a wood bat during a game in North Little Rock, Ark. The coach, 35-year-old Mike Coolbaugh, had played briefly in the majors in 2002 and 2003; he leaves a wife and two children.
His death adds to the debate about dangers in baseball, which usually focuses on young players struck by balls hit off aluminum bats. Supporters of metal bats insist that debate is skewed.
"Why is it when there's an injury from a ball hit from a non-wood bat, people blame the bat?" asks Jim Darby of Easton Sports, a leading bat manufacturer. "When there's an injury from a ball off a wood bat, people say that's part of the game."
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
Especially a cutter. It's where Mariano Rivera makes his living.
not much is better than the sound of a wooden bat, except maybe a chaingun, helicopter or a light bulb breaking, but nothing is worse than an aluminium bat “ping,” except for an alarm clock in the morning.
You mean *other* than my "kicking-with-the-skate-blades" rule?
To paraphrase Jocelyn Elders, "We need safer balls."
Baseball is boring when you don’t know anything about it.
Using a lower-bounce-coefficient ball would offset a higher-bounce-coefficient bat; if the ball and bat were well matched, I would think the combination might be playable. While it should be possible to bat a ball about as far as with a normal ball and bat, the reduced bounce coefficient of the ball should reduce the likelihood of injury should it hit someone.
That's easy. Get married, they'll never be used again...
...except for scratchin’...ain’t that the truth...
their usually kept in my wife’s purse till game time.
Changing the bat weights is the real solution rather than the composition itself.
Aluminum bats are part of the islamofascist/communist plot to undermine the American culture. They should be banned.
As proof, it says in the Koran or Quran or whatever the current spelling is that “The infidel shall be spared the mild willow to endure the avenging metal.”
BATS GOT RIGHTS! - Peta.
Couldn’t resist.
(And that would kind of defeat the purpose of going metal — saving money.)
Have you looked at the price of an aluminum bat lately?
Col Sanders
Organized baseball has existed since before the Civil War, and I’ll bet there’ve been less than 10 people killed as a result of on-field happenings. I can only think of three myself. What a bunch of wussies there are in this country.
Forget the dangers, it’s a hard projectile game and there’s no way to eliminate. The reality is the poing of a hit with an aluminum bat simply has no place in the game, the only real bats are wooden, a hit needs to smack not poing.
Ah yes, that is correct. Did something to an artery, crushed or some such thing... Awful.
Don't get me wrong, baseball is not as boring as golf (old men wandering in a field), NASCAR (driving in circles), or curling (the odd combination of shuffleboard and housework *on ICE*!!!).
Baseball was boring to play as a kid (Especially here in FL where Football is king.) and as an adult I've found it to be the cure for insomnia.
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