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I agree that the government should stay out of it, however there has been such a strong and antagonistic pro-aluminum coalition (supported by EASTON, etc.) that most youth leagues can’t effectively resist, much less change back to wood.

I fought the bat battle 10 years ago along with the NCAA, and you’d be amazed to see the lengths that aluminum bat manufacturers will go to “head these initiatives off at the pass”. It’s pretty disturbing stuff.

Aluminum bats are great ... unless your kid is a pitcher!

What is sadder is the level of competition in Dixie ( 7-8 yoa ) and youth girls softball among the parents. The kids just want to play and the parents are all about playing “select ball” and if their kid does not get asked to the all star team they are offended.

My son was asked to play select after the season and I said no and you would have though I kicked someone’s grandma. This year the word was out that I am a non-team parent (??) so don’t bother asking my kid to play. The good thing is he is in the top 5 of players in the league so they need him.

Are you saying that the people are up against BIG ALUMINUM (Alcoa, Reynolds, etc)?............

“Aluminum bats are great ... unless your kid is a pitcher!”

and my kid is a pitcher.
The older, bigger, stronger these kids get, the more nerve wracking the whole aluminum vs. wood issue becomes.

My daughter's league would not allow wooden bats. She preferred The wood because of the feel. We should make the green argument: "How many aluminum trees are being cut down every year to provide these bats?" Heck, a lot of the greenies probably think aluminum comes from trees.

You're correct about the aluminum bat manufacturers. They do not want wooden bats to be legal.

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.

I fought the bat battle 10 years ago along with the NCAA, and you’d be amazed to see the lengths that aluminum bat manufacturers will go to “head these initiatives off at the pass”. It’s pretty disturbing stuff. Aluminum bats are great ... unless your kid is a pitcher!

I hear ya. My son wasn't a pitcher, but as a former coach, I know what you're talking about. I still remember the day our 15 yr old boys select team was playing and our (big for his age) 6' 200# pitcher was hit in the chest by a line drive. He went down like a sack of potatoes. Luckily he was ok, other than the wind knocked out of him, and a nice bruise complete with ball stitching marks. We did, however call the aid car in the interim. It's those first 100' or so off the batt, where the aluminum batts have the greatest increase in velocity.
I'm not sure about nationwide, but I do know that Community Collge baseball here in Washington state uses wood batts, and has for a while. It's also understandable why the batt companies want to keep them. When I was a kid, back in the Jurassic era, our Little League teams had an assortment of wooden batts in the gear bag that would last from season to season until breakage required that they be replaced. Nowadays, every kid buys his own batt..or two...or three...each year. Follow the money.

All that having been said, I agree. This is no place for government intrusion.