Posted on 02/27/2008 10:46:07 AM PST by kc8ukw
It's been three decades now since the ping of aluminum started drowning out the crack of a wooden bat on youth baseball fields across America.
But that older sound of summer is making a comeback on some grassy diamonds these days — not for nostalgia, but safety. Some Illinois lawmakers, in fact, want to ban metal bats from youth baseball.
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
What about carbon fiber bats? Titanium? Kevlar?
It's really about the bats. The issue, which is real, is that the ball leaves an aluminum bat much faster, and more kids are getting hurt.
The propsed legislative solution.... well, that's a different matter entirely. Leagues should deal with the problem.
OTOH, if the leagues aren't dealing with it ... then what?
getting hit in the head with a kickball is much different than getting hit in the head when kids are throwing 80+ mph pitches that are getting hit by large muscular boys.
It’s not too much of an issue in LL - but now that we’re heading into varsity high school baseball - it is making me nervous.
We call them "hot bats" and they are a concern in baseball and softball.
Illinois has cancelled Little League this year. All kids will just receive an appropriate self esteem “All Star Winner” certificates in the mail.
That is all.
Aluminum bats don't GIVE, either. They impart much more of the energy to the ball than the wooden ones do, thus harder and longer hits. I've often wondered how much damage the aluminum bats do to the batters' wrists from the jar.............
Light beer too.
This is silly. People aren't getting hit with the bats. They're getting hit with the BALLS. They should ban the balls. That would make it much safer.
You show me any kid throwing 80+MPH fastballs, and I’ll call the Pirates front office to go sign him immediately.
The move to aluminum was partly driven by a shortage of ashe, the primary wood of baseball bats in years past. There is a Pennsylvania-based company that has been making bats from maple for a number of years. They have caught on at every level in which wooden bats are still used.
All that said, it is possible to make an aluminum bat a little less ‘lively’ so that it more closely mimics a wooden bat. This has already been done.
I suspect any time there’s a hotshot up the middle that nails a pitch, and an aluminum bat was used, you’re going to get a replay of this story.
Now, should the nanny state control the rules? No, in my view. It should be the league or the governing baseball association.
I kid you not.
clocked at 83 at a showcase in Aug.
Twice.
Up until that day everyone considered him a catcher.
It’s even worse in girls’ softball, where the pitcher is only 45 ft from home plate and the pitcher’s follow-through often leaves them unready to defend themselves from a shot up the middle.
I coached my daughters in their younger years in tee ball, coach pitch, slow pitch, modified fast pitch and fast pitch softball. I remember when the more modern aluminum alloy bats first hit the field - in rec leagues, only the “elite” coaches that cared more about winning a trophy than about teaching the game and having fun had them (I was one of those that wanted to have fun, so I didn’t get to coach the stacked teams). Their little kids hit the ball harder than out big kids - the difference between the fancy bats and our Wally World bats was dramatic. We often had kids on the field that barely knew how to put a glove on, much less what to do with it - and some whose minds tended to wander in the field. I’m glad that nobody ever got seriously hurt on my teams - had a lot of close calls, though.
That being said, I would not ban aluminum bats in youth league - it would cost too much to keep replacing wooden bats. I would ban the practice of stacked teams competing against the leftover teams, and require the leagues to have a unanimously approved bat list that all teams in the league must use (and if I were voting I would only approve use of basic department-store bats). Tournament travel teams are a different story - all bets off.
My son’s last year of baseball, he went up against a 14-year-old throwing 80+ (as estimated by an experienced ref and a coach). Our team, made up mostly of 13 year olds, got exactly one hit.
I agree! My son is 14 (almost 15) and is a pitcher throwing around 80mph and I really worry about a “hit back” with a metal bat. He is doing High School tryouts right now and there is a local baseball bboard talking about going to wood in High School.
I think what needs to happen FIRST is for College baseball to go to wood then it will trickle down to H.S.
With that being said, I do not like wood bats from about 14 years old on down. Most wood bats are way too heavy for these kids that have not developed upper body strength yet and they end up with a really crappy swing because of the extra weight. It is much easier to TEACH with the lighter metal when they are 10-14 years old. Smaller wood bats only frustrate kids that need a little bigger bat size.
Youth baseball is losing kids at a rapid pace and I think metal bats keep the game a little “livelier” and exciting and that is what will keep kids in baseball longer. I’ve been hit by a ball hit with wood and metal and it hurt both times!!!
Bottom line, if College goes to wood, then I am all for High Schools to go to wood BUT NOT YOUTH BASEBALL!
“it would cost too much to keep replacing wooden bats”
true.
we occasionally played in wooden bat tourneys, and went through alot of broken bats.
I went to grade school and played 6th grade baseball with a kid who was a pitcher and threw about 75. Everyone thought he would go to the Show. He went to all sorts of pitching camps and learned how to throw breaking balls and he was unhitable.
He blew out his arm in high school and that was the end of the baseball road for him. Throwing like that at a young age is not good. I don't think it's a coincidence that the kids who are awesome pitchers in the Little League World Series don't seem to have long-term success. That sort of throwing take a toll.
So, I said that to say don't run off to the Pirates just yet...
I however think that the NCAA and highschool leagues should switch back to wood, or use the same regualtion standards the USGA uses.
“I would ban the practice of stacked teams competing against the leftover teams, and require the leagues to have a unanimously approved bat list that all teams in the league must use (and if I were voting I would only approve use of basic department-store bats).”
Good ideas. The last year my son played ball (he realized baseball wasn’t going to be his thing), we played one team so bad that I was petrified some of their infielders were going to be seriously hurt.
I was also petrified the last two years my daughter pitched softball. She was only in the B league, but she barely made numerous stops that saved her face or other body parts.
I hope they outlaw sharp pencils, too. And footballs, they’re hard, and they can hurt you!
Ed
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