THE POWER IN A WOODEN BAT

It is time for MLB commissioner Bud Selig and the rest of baseball to give back after taking so much.

And here is how they could do it.

The debate of whether or not NCAA Baseball should use wooden bats instead of aluminum bats has been beaten like a government mule since 1974 when the NCAA first allowed the use of aluminum bats.

That is 35 years of friendships being ended, marriages put to the ultimate test, nervous breakdowns, sweaty palms, and high-blood pressure.

This is why I am writing this. To help put an end to needless aggravation. To hopefully give refuge to all of those who have suffered from this plight.

Baseball, like any other sport, has progression, or advancement throughout a player’s career.

The first is T-ball; the simplest way to learn the concept of America’s Pastime. The introduction of perhaps the hardest thing any sport asks of a player, using a round object to make contact with another round object.

Once the child has learned how to hit a baseball in suspended animation, it is time to graduate and enroll in the next scholastic level of baseball, coach pitch.

It may not seem like much of a transition at the time, but now your eye-hand coordination is put to baseball’s true test. First, can your eyes find the ball in the pitcher’s hand and then follow its path towards home plate? Next, if you still see the path of the baseball, you now have to flick your wrists and throw out your hands when your eyes tell your brain, SWING!

The next level of progression in the baseball player’s career is being able to hit a simulated real pitch.  That is done with a pitching machine. The pitching machine consists of a hole to place the baseball through, a wheel to give the baseball its velocity, and different speeds to control how fast the baseball will come off of the wheel. Not too much of a transition from coach pitch, but a player does have to be able to use their eye-hand coordination faster than they did in coach pitch.

Finally, we get to the real deal, player vs. player, peer vs. peer, pitcher vs. hitter. Much of the concepts are the same, but now the hitter must watch more than just the baseball, he has to watch the pitcher. At this level, learning the rhythm and tendencies of a pitcher also help the hitter make contact when they swing the bat at the ball.

From here, the men are separated from the boys, the pretenders move out of the way of the contenders. We are talking about Pony League, metal cleats, then high school, and if you are lucky college or the minors.

For the purpose of getting to the point of my story, I won’t go into the progressions from Pony League, to high school and college, but instead, I would like to focus on the transition from high school, to college, to the minors and major league.

After a player finishes high school and is good enough to continue advancing through the levels of baseball, you either have college, or declare yourself for the draft and usually end up in the minor leagues.

Right now, why would a player of high-caliber even care about college? I mean, the amount of money that they would be turning down seems almost criminal. But, I do not think that it is just about the money.

This is why I want college and the MLB to have the NCAA use wooden bats instead of aluminum. High school baseball is not college baseball. The talent level is a progression when you move from high school to the NCAA, but with an aluminum bat, it does not give these players to take the next step like they have always done in their career. This is why the MLB has three different levels of minor leagues. Because so many of these kids feel that college baseball is a waste and the MLB has plenty of space to fill them into.

Consider how much money the MLB spends on their three minor leagues, and how little they spend on promoting education and helping the colleges and states in which those colleges reside, increase scholarships and have players being able to have an impact on their community, not just on the diamond.

If the NCAA switched to wooden bats, and the MLB removed one of their minor league divisions, more kids would choose to college, get their education started, and have something to fall back on in case of injury.

Let’s be honest. Your chances of getting hurt are far greater than your chances of making it to THE SHOW. So many young kids get hurt in the minor leagues and then have absolutely nothing to fall back on in case they are unable to recover from the injury. Also, it is hard to make THE SHOW. How many times have you heard about a minor league baseball player who just didn’t cut it, and then ended up pumping gas, or working at a batting cage with no education?

You put wooden bats into the NCAA; you make it more appealing to those same young kids who think they are ready for the MLB experience. Also, in addition to the wooden bats, if kids’ favor for college increases the level of players in the minors would decrease. As a result, the minor league population would go down, leaving the MLB with more money, money that could be used to help out the communities from which their players are coming from.

More power to the WOODEN BAT.