Fat Risks, Slim Benefits

Re-aired on July 29, 2010, ESPN’s Outside the Lines presented a story over a longstanding debate between metal bats and wood bats. The original story aired June 11, 2010 on OTL.

Bjorn Sandberg’s near deadly encounter with a ball rocketed off of a metal bat added fuel to the fire. Sandberg himself was fortunate. He lived to tell the tale.

Statements on the way a baseball jumps off of a metal bat compared to those cracking against a wood bat have long been at war with each other. Think about that for a few seconds. Is there an error in misguided common sense or are we flat out naïve?

In comparison, the aluminum bat’s sweet spot respond the same as a wood bat’s sweet spot on one condition. The wood bat is hollowed out and corked. As a result, the sweet spot of the wood bat heavily replicates the trampoline effect as metal bats used today.

The evolution of baseball constantly changes the longer an individual plays. So what’s the point?

Baseball gradually escalates into a high risk high reward game due to its competitively intense will to win in addition to the dream of playing at the elite levels. Three positions primarily at risk are the pitcher, first baseman, and third baseman because of the significantly reduced time to react.

Competitive baseball is beginning at younger ages. To younger ages of glory-sifted kids playing for keeps, they grasp the notion of the potentially dangerous nature included with competitive baseball.

Aluminum bat manufacturers have been doing cartwheels in the wake of the prior admission of risk. That tiny admission may be the only victory metal bat makers are fortunate enough to claim. Employees from the owner’s office down to the laborers, emphatically defend not banning the use of aluminum bats permanently.

They make their life’s living creating and improving the performance of each baseball bat, introducing new and better products to their customers’ which, in turn, aid in shoring up job security.

Furthermore, opposing parties rallying against metal bats are compassionate toward those employed with all bat industries. Worried parties for the ban are not asking for the jobs of workers. The outrage against the advanced aluminum bats come from a safety issue and not those actively producing the product.

In the past, bat manufacturers preached tirelessly on ridding the ban on metal bats because the issue is nothing more than an emotional response to the rare and serious to deadly incidents where aluminum bats stood out as the main culprit.

In a cold-hearted response, bat manufacturers may actually consider those who have been seriously injured due to being struck by a line drive off of a metal bat as a victory. Anything short of death keeps the concrete liability and guilt-stricken emotions miles away. These companies will do everything in their power to deflect the defectiveness of over-achieved and indestructible bats used by millions in baseball today.

Flipping the tables, spokespeople for metal bat companies and sporting goods sales representatives calm and collectively suggest pitchers are not properly preparing themselves for the potential dangers the game of baseball presents.

Was the pitcher looking up after he released the ball?

Why wasn’t the pitcher in proper fielding position upon releasing the ball?

4/10 of a second is more than enough time to react to a batted ball.

There are no accurate means of testing the alleged deadly components put off by aluminum bats.

Banning metal bats is purely an emotional response based upon the horrific nature and rare occurrences of such incidents.

Has anybody heard any of the above statements?

If not then crawl out from under the rock from which you live and join the rest of the world.

A word to the wise: Defending one’s company which produces a successfully popular product illustrates a confident united front, but to reverse course blaming those using their product while comprehending the hazardous risks to an “I told you so,” reply to a stinging series of open-handed slaps to the face, are heckling insults.

At the same time, the bat manufacturers feel betrayed complaining how the masses repeatedly demonize them as well as being rendered guilty in the court of public opinion.

Short Sample of Metal Bat Related Incidents: Hopefully this short list raises some eyebrows.

April, 1999: Cal State Northridge pitcher struck in the face by a line drive fracturing his skull.

1999 NCAA Regional: Pitchers from both Nebraska and Butler suffer broken jaws during an NCAA Tournament Regional in Lincoln, Nebraska. Both players required titanium plates to repair their injuries.

Jeremy Brett: A high school pitcher from Enid, Oklahoma, hit in the head by a line drive. The treatment resulted in five metal plates, 75 staples and 12 screws to repair Brett’s injuries.

June 26, 1998: 15-year-old struck in the head by a line drive sustaining a fractured skull.

May 13, 1998: Pitcher hit in the head by a line drive requiring 11 metal plates and 22 screws.

August 2, 1998: A 17-year-old dies immediately following a line drive taken to the temple.

Summer, 1998: 14-year-old struck in the temple and dies shortly afterwards.

April 24, 1997: High school pitcher suffers temporary hearing loss and brain contusion resulting from a line drive striking him in the ear.

June 5, 1994: 16-year-old second baseman hit in the chest by a line drive resulting in instant cardiac arrest. Consequently, the young man didn’t regain consciousness for over 48 hours.

June, 2001: 14-year-old Anthony Ricci hit directly in the mouth off a batted ball knocking out teeth. Action required 40 stitches to his face and jaw wired shut.

July 25, 2003: 18-year-old Brandon Patch died after being struck in the temple by a line drive. The ball itself traveled back at Brandon at an estimated speed of 99.8 mph, well above the standard rating allowed for all aluminum bats at that particular time. Specifications to comply with ever-changing safety precautions may be the only safety blanket bat manufacturing companies have to fall back on.

Brief Process History of Metal Bat Evolution

-7 oz weight ratio to the bat’s length. Bat’s barrel is 2 ¾ in. diameter; 33 inches 26 ounces

-5 oz weight ratio to the bat’s length. Bat’s barrel is 2 ¾ in. diameter; 33 inches 28 ounces and later the barrel’s diameter reduced to 2 5/8 inches.

-3 oz weight ratio to the bat’s length. Bat’s barrel is decreased to 2 5/8 in. diameter; 33 inches 30 ounces

Faster, lighter, and unmistakably stronger in composition, the metal bat craze soared to record heights because of its powerful game-changing performance.

Results from top selling high performance bats transformed low run, two-and-a-half hour games into 20 run outbursts lasting as long as three to four hours on a regular basis.

Elite pitchers discovered how an elongated barrel and NASA-powered sweet spots obliterated a once respected ERA.

With a rapidly rising ERA, it became the norm for talented dominating pitchers to be shelled after only a few innings. Hearing that piercing “ping” sound ring out loud, encouraged hitters dug deeper in the batter’s box with the intended purpose of joining the “ping” pounding hit parade.

On the opposite side of the fence, pitchers attempt to rise up to the challenge, praying to not just keep the ball in the infield, but hoping to keep the ball in the same zip code.

The 1997-1998 Crisco-Greenwald Batting Cage Study concluded after an extensive testing regiment that batted balls exited the sweet spot of an aluminum bat at five to seven mph faster than the exit speed from a wood bat.

New York City councilman James S. Otto had enough of seeing the terrifying and deadly incidents at the hands of today’s unique high-tech aluminum weapons.

Councilman Otto’s findings are head-spinning and quite alarming.

Easton posted in a report (at the time) the maximum exit speed off of one of their metal bats clocked in at 115 mph, but further testing revealed exit speeds as high as 123 mph off of the same bat when done in a separate test.

Adults have an average response time of 4/10 of a second from the time contact is made to the point the ball arrives back to the mound.

Batted balls roped back at the pitcher traveling at a jaw-dropping 94 mph, reduces the adult reaction time to just 3/10 of a second.

What happens when the same pitcher attempts to dodge a ball smoked at 123 mph?

More than likely, a plastic surgeon will be needed to reconstruct the pitchers face in general.

Chances are the pitcher won’t have any time to blink. I guess that’s better than the alternative of dying. At least that’s what metal bat makers will say.

Again in 2000, the Crisco-Greenwald Study updated the comparison between metal and wood bats.

The new study involved 19 players from the high school level up to the minor league level. All 19 players stepped in the box facing live pitching, not machine pitch.

The difference between wood and metal indicated, once again, more startling results.

Metal bats showed the average exit speed upon contact at 106.5 mph while wood bats averaged 98.6 mph.

The NCAA’s method on testing the comparison between metal and wood bats varies greatly, in that their testing methods are literally more robotic from the Crisco-Greenwald study. Swing machines use metal and wood bats to hit baseballs on tees to finalize their studies, not live hitters.

Critics unopposed of banning metal bats do share some common ground.

Providing a safer baseball playing environment shines through as the top priority, and the top priority starts with the bat’s composition issue. Continuing down the same path in creating super loaded aluminum bats increases the danger on an exponential scale.

Furthermore, the bat companies collectively brainstorm wild solutions of their own. One solution suggests pitchers arm themselves head-to-toe in body armor.

Maybe a middle ground can be reached.

Avoid arming the pitcher up like one of the Knights of the Roundtable and replace the body armor with a permanent L-Screen. As long as metal bat manufacturers refuse to accept any accountability, it’s a solid gold guarantee both sides of the debate will be dead set on stone-walling one another.

I played baseball for a long time and used aluminum bats throughout the duration. The experience handling metal bats reveals both empowering and disturbing outcomes.

I have been involved with games where I had been struck with a line drive while pitching as well as viciously tagged while guarding the hot corner. Injury from a line drive doesn’t sink in until you actually take a hit.

My injuries individually look somewhat harmless, but one injury in particular scared the living hell out of me.

Pitching batting practice turned home run derby, the hitter lined a ball off of my left side breaking two ribs in the process. Coughing up a little blood after catching my breath was enough for one day. Seeing an injury up close is no easier than taking the hit yourself.

In a way, you tell yourself “better you than me.” Then the feeling crosses to distraught compassion towards the injured player. The thought of how easily this could’ve happened to you plays over and over upstairs. You do not ever forget moments like that.

I guess you can call it a reality check. Aluminum bats have their rightful place in baseball. Once one reaches 14-15 year old age groups, serious changes are in order.

One final thought to the young guns playing high school and competitive summer league baseball.

If you have an unwavering aspiration to play baseball at the highest level, find any means possible to communicate with a college ballplayer lucky enough to play in the Cape Cod League, and then ask for their thoughts on the significance of effectively using wood bats.

The given response just might surprise you.