Shattered Maple Bats: Growing Concern for MLB

On Tuesday, June 24, MLB officials finally met to discuss the safety of the use of maple bats.  The meeting was in response to the growing rate at which these bats have been shattering this season. 

Don Long, a Pittsburgh hitting coach, was struck by the barrel of a broken maple bat in April. Long was left with a gash in his face and now bears a large scar. 

While it seems the Long incident sparked the meeting, another incident actually took place the night of the meeting during a Kansas City game.

When Miguel Olivo of KC hit a ground ball, the barrel of his maple bat carried backwards and hit the umpire Brian O'Nora. O'Nora also received a nasty cut, but his injuries also included a mild concussion. 

As a fan, you might ask, "If these maple bats are the ones shattering and causing injuries, why doesn't the league get rid of them?" Maybe it's time for a flashback. 

Maple bats were always stronger than the common ash bat. The problem was that they were too heavy to swing. However, carpenter Sam Holman used a drying method to reduce the moisture content of maple to about 8%, making the maple bat much lighter.

After Barry Bonds had a 73 home run year in 2001 using a maple bat, all the heavy hitters wanted them. Maple bats became very popular. (Currently about half of the MLB's bat suppliers are producing maple bats.) 

Well, if the reason these hitters want to use maple bats is that they're stronger than the ash bats, why are maple bats breaking at an alarming rate? 

A combination: the manufacturers of the bats are tending to use maple that is more likely to snap; and players in search of lighter bats want bats with large differentials (the difference between the length in inches and the weight in ounces). 

I believe the MLB will issue a maximum differential, probably of two. This means that if a player's bat is 34 inches long, it cannot weight less than 32 ounces.

In order to make sure that the bats being used are made of good, sturdy maple, the league is looking into using technology such as CT scans that would scan the maple for cracks that would tend to make the bat more vulnerable to shattering. 

It's about time the league takes action against these maple bats. And while they'll never be outlawed completely, differential maximums and even a minimum for the width of the handles of bats will help to prevent more injuries from taking place.

It's just sad it took the could-have-been-worse injuries of Long and O'Nora for people to notice that these shattering bats are dangerous.