A Cal­i­for­nia Ath­letic League has been in the news this week after it’s offi­cials decided to ban metal base­ball bats fol­low­ing an inci­dent where a 16-year-old was hit in the head with a line drive and left in crit­i­cal con­di­tion. You can read more about it here ( http://www.news10.net/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=78110&catid=3).

Right now metal and com­pos­ite bats are per­mit­ted in the major­ity of base­ball and soft­ball leagues, includ­ing the Lit­tle League, High School, and Col­lege lev­els. Major League Base­ball and its minor league affil­i­ates are only per­mit­ted to use wooden bats.

I have been play­ing base­ball and soft­ball since I was about 5 years old. I have always used a metal or com­pos­ite bat. I con­tinue to do so today. But after read­ing about the young man who was injured, and tak­ing some time to think about this issue, I have to say I agree with the metal bat ban and think more leagues should con­sider fol­low­ing in this Cal­i­for­nia League’s footsteps.

Why? Not only are ath­letes get­ting big­ger and stronger, but so are the bats. Up until a few years ago there were only wooden and metal bats. Now the bat com­pa­nies have been com­ing out with new mod­els, includ­ing com­pos­ite bats made in either a “sin­gle wall” or “dou­ble wall” for­mat. These are designed to be lighter and eas­ier to swing, mean­ing you can hit the ball harder and far­ther. The cost of these can get upwards of $300. The more you pay, the harder you hit. 

In fact, dou­ble wall bats, which are sup­posed to have the most bounce to them, have been banned in many leagues already. They sim­ply hit the ball too hard. Most leagues, how­ever, con­tinue to allow sin­gle wall and metal bats, which still pack a pretty mean punch.

The player left most vul­ner­a­ble to these bats is the pitcher on the oppos­ing team. Stand­ing only a few feet away from the batter–and directly in the path of the ball–the pitcher often gets line dri­ves hit right at him/her.

So, while plac­ing a ban on metal and com­pos­ite bats at all lev­els might seem like the log­i­cal choice for player safety, some ques­tions still linger:

Would a change to wooden bats in all lev­els of play make a dif­fer­ence?
In Major League Base­ball, where only wooden bats are allowed, there still have been some pretty hor­rific scenes of pitch­ers and other play­ers get­ting hit with line dri­ves. So wooden bats are not a cure-all to the prob­lem. There will still be line dri­ves hit at the pitcher,  but they prob­a­bly wouldn’t be hit as hard, so injuries could be more minor or eas­ier to avoid.

Would tak­ing away the best bats make the game less fun?
It sure could. As I already stated I do like using a com­pos­ite bat. I like hit­ting the ball as hard as possible–after all that’s what being a good hit­ter is all about. Wooden bats are heav­ier and not as easy to use. It would be an adjust­ment for peo­ple who are used to lighter and stronger bats. And yes, it might take some of the action away from the game. There would be less home­runs and hard hit balls, and that’s what peo­ple love to see. But no one wants to see play­ers get­ting hurt either.

How would it affect the bat com­pa­nies?
The com­pa­nies right now have to be mak­ing a lot of money on the new styles of bats. New tech­nol­ogy is con­stantly devel­oped. And as these bats get bet­ter defen­sive play­ers get more vul­ner­a­ble to injury. Plus, if leagues started to only allow wooden bats the com­pa­nies may just find ways to make wooden bats lighter and stronger.

Would a change hurt young play­ers’ chances of mak­ing it to the major leagues?
Not if all leagues adopted the change. Remem­ber, in the major leagues you may only use wooden bats, so if any­thing a uni­ver­sal shift to wooden bats would help pre­pare young play­ers even more for play­ing in the big leagues. It would also make it eas­ier for major league scouts to iden­tify good hit­ters. There have been a lot of cases where a col­lege hit­ter was recruited up to the majors because he hit well at school (with a metal bat). The adjust­ment to using a wooden bat can be tricky for some, and oth­ers just can’t han­dle it. So get­ting used to a wooden bat at younger ages could in fact help pre­pare play­ers for the next level.

After giv­ing more thought and analy­sis to the sit­u­a­tion I have come to the con­clu­sion that there should be a ban on metal and com­pos­ite bats in all leagues in the United States. It will help keep play­ers safe and the game is so much fun already, so I doubt the loss of these heavy duty bats would deter any­one from steping into the batter’s box again.

For more infor­ma­tion visit www.sportsconcussion.com or www.bianj.org.

What are your thoughts? Do you see any­more pros or cons to the sit­u­a­tion? Please leave your comments.