This from the Philadelphia Inquirer...

N.J. is considering a ban on metal bats for youth leagues
By Tom Hester Jr.
Associated Press
TRENTON - Freckle-faced Steven Domalewski was 45 feet from home plate when a screaming line drive off an aluminum bat hammered the 12-year-old in the chest.

The ball hit the boy in the millisecond between his heartbeats, sending him into cardiac arrest. Three spectators rushed onto the field and resuscitated him, but the damage was done. He suffered brain swelling and went into a coma.

Now, four months later, New Jersey lawmakers are considering making the state the first to ban metal bats from youth sports.

"The ball came so fast off the bat, my son had absolutely no chance to cover or protect himself," the boy's father, Joseph Domalewski, said before speaking to a legislative committee yesterday.

A 2002 study by Brown University said balls hit off an aluminum bat averaged 93.3 m.p.h., compared with 86.1 m.p.h. for wooden bats. It found that 2 percent of balls hit off wooden bats exceeded 100 m.p.h., compared with 37 percent hit off metal bats.

Domalewski said that just a bit more reaction time was all his son would have needed. He said the boy tried to shield himself, but instead suffered a traumatic brain injury and now cannot talk or see. He just started eating again, though that's a struggle.

"A split-second and maybe we would have had him home with a bruised shoulder," Domalewski said.

State Assemblyman Patrick J. Diegnan, who proposed the ban, said he had worried about the speed of balls shooting off aluminum bats even before he heard about Domalewski. Diegnan recalled cringing at line drives when his daughters played softball.

"A fraction of a second is the difference between life and death," said Diegnan (D., Middlesex).

Diegnan's measure would require wooden bats for all leagues with players under 18. An exemption would be granted if a visiting team comes from out of state.

Though Assembly lawmakers released the bill from committee yesterday, clearing it for a possible vote by the full House, it's a long way from becoming law. Little League officials and bat manufacturers oppose it.

Stephen D. Keener, president and chief executive officer of Little League Baseball and Softball, said steps had already been taken to make bats safer. He said rules requiring that metal bats be similar to wooden ones had cut injuries to pitchers hit by batted balls. Little League had 170 million at-bats last year and 22 injuries to pitchers, down from 145 in 1992, he said.

"If this was, in our opinion, a safety issue, we should be leading the way on changes," Keener said. But "there is an insignificant difference between the non-wood bats that are used today and the wood bats they are tested against."

Former major league catcher and Princeton University baseball coach Scott Bradley said that banning metal bats would cut participation in youth baseball. "I think we're going to take a lot of opportunities and a lot of fun away," he said.

But Montclair State baseball coach Norm Schoenig said lawmakers had little choice but to ban metal bats if they wanted to improve safety. "You can't increase the reaction time of a 10-, 11- or 12-year-old young man just learning to play the game of baseball," he said.

John Della Volpe, of Concord, Mass., whose son was hit in the face by a line drive but recovered from severe facial injuries, said he didn't need a study to convince him there's a difference between metal and wooden bats.

"I just know it's not the same," he said.

New Jersey wouldn't be the only state to remove the ping of the bat from youth baseball games. Illinois high schools have started a pilot program to test wooden bats; North Dakota high school teams plan to switch to wood next year, and Massachusetts Catholic high school baseball teams have used only wooden bats since 2003.

Good - it is a complete distortion of the game - worse than Astroturf was - and is a danger to all involved as well.

IMO.

Agreed.

When metal bats get outlawed...

Only outlaws will have metal bats.



I agree... too many kids getting hurt, but follow the money. The lobby in the other direction is simply too great.


CadDAD

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". The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work."
Socrates

My biggest problem with metal bats at the younger ages is that they distort the game.. turning routine outs into seeing-eye singles. At the older ages it's just downright dangerous.

________________________________________________
Stephen D. Keener, president and chief executive officer of Little League Baseball and Softball, said steps had already been taken to make bats safer. He said rules requiring that metal bats be similar to wooden ones had cut injuries to pitchers hit by batted balls. Little League had 170 million at-bats last year and 22 injuries to pitchers, down from 145 in 1992, he said.
_______________________________________________

This is one time that the numbers does not matter. How would you like to be the parents of one of those "22" injured. While the reduction is great, if there is something that still can be done to reduce the number of injuries, DO IT!

It is sad when the profit of a $300.00 bat, out weighs the safety of our kids on the field.

Why not start with moving the pitchers mound back from 45ft. for twelve yr olds that's way too close.

AL MA 08,
I couldn't agree more. By the way, at least 8 pitcher fatalities since 1991. 0 is the only acceptable number here. I'd like to see all of the data released, rather than just the numbers that BIG BATCO wants us to see.

Here's another one from the NY daily News...
Full metal racket

Little League getting sued over use
of aluminum bats as lawmakers consider ban

BY MICHAEL O'KEEFFE
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER

John Baggs, 12, doesn't remember much about getting injured with the bone-shattering line drive in July, but his father says the smash, which came off an aluminum bat, nearly blinded his son and gave Little League a black eye.
John Baggs remembers getting the sign from his coach and he remembers throwing a fastball during the first inning of an All-Star tournament game at Staten Island Little League's Dongan Hills Complex. He remembers hearing the "ping" of an aluminum bat and he remembers seeing a hard-hit baseball coming right at his head.
The rest of that July day remains a blur for the 12-year-old pitcher, but the memories will haunt his parents for the rest of their lives. The sharp line drive smashed John's forehead, shattering the bones just above his left eye. John underwent surgery 12 days later at New York University Medical Center, where a plate was inserted in his forehead.

"His head was crushed," says the seventh-grader's father, a New York City firefighter also named John Baggs, who attended the game with his wife, Lori. "There was an indentation in his head the diameter of a baseball and the blood was pouring out of his nose. But he was lucky, because if that ball had hit any lower, it could have caused damage to the eye. He could have been blinded."

John's parents say they want to protect other ballplayers from suffering similar injuries, and that's why they filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court of Richmond County last week against Little League Baseball Inc., that claims their son's injury was caused in part by rules that allow players to use aluminum bats. The Baggs will also appear tomorrow at a City Council hearing to support proposed legislation that would ban aluminum bats from New York City high school baseball games.

The bill's sponsor, Councilman James Oddo, says modern bats made with high-tech metals and pressurized air chambers have turned the national pastime into Russian roulette: Baseballs jump off the bat so fast, young pitchers don't have time to respond to line drives, exposing them to increased risk of injury or even death.

"These are the equivalent of bats on steroids," Oddo says. "There is a risk of injury in every sport, but the risk from aluminum bats has become unreasonable and somebody needs to step in."

Oddo predicts his proposal will lead to metal bat bans across the United States. "New York City is the first domino," the council's Republican leader says. "If we pass this bill, cities and states across the country will follow."

Actually, the dominoes have already begun to fall. North Dakota high school teams have voluntarily agreed to switch to wood bats next year. Massachusetts Catholic high school teams have used only wooden bats since 2003. New Jersey lawmakers held a hearing Thursday on a bill that would make New Jersey the first state to ban metal bats from all levels of youth sports.

"It's a more dangerous game when it is played with aluminum bats," says State Sen. Nicholas Scutari, one of the proposal's sponsors.

The New York and New Jersey bills face stiff resistance from bat manufacturers and youth baseball leagues, who say there's no evidence that aluminum bats are more dangerous than wood bats. Little League data, for example, shows there was a 76% decrease in reported injuries to pitchers from batted balls between 1992 and 2000, according to spokesman Christopher Downs.

"Statistics show baseball is a safe sport with the bats used today," says Jim Darby, vice president of promotions for bat manufacturer Easton Sports. "If Councilman Oddo has data that shows aluminum bats are more of a safety risk, he should show us the data."

Yale physics professor Robert Adair, the author of "The Physics of Baseball," says he prefers the crack of a wood bat to the ding of aluminum, but he is not convinced that metal bats pose greater risks. "I'm a bit dubious," he says. "A big strong kid with a wood bat will hit a ball harder than a small kid with an aluminum bat. I find it hard to argue on either side of this debate." But metal bat critics say there is plenty of evidence that wood is safer.

Eight players were killed by balls hit with aluminum bats between 1991 and 2001, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission; two were killed by balls hit with wood bats during that same period (the type of bat used in seven other batted-ball deaths was not documented).

A 2002 study by Brown University found that balls hit with a metal bat averaged 93.2 miles per hour, compared to 86.1 mph for wooden bats. Two percent of balls hit with wooden bats exceeded 100 mph; 37% hit with metal bats broke the 100 mph mark. And, they say, John Baggs is not the only victim of aluminum bats:


In June, a 12-year-old Wayne, N.J., pitcher named Steven Domalewski was hit in the chest with a line drive off a metal bat. The ball hit the boy in the millisecond between heartbeats, sending him into cardiac arrest that led to a severe brain injury. "The ball came so fast off the bat, my son had absolutely no chance to cover or protect himself," the boy's father, Joseph Domalewski, told the New Jersey lawmakers Thursday.

In April 2005, a line drive off a metal bat hit 16-year-old pitcher Bill Kalant in the temple during a high school game in suburban Chicago. His brain injury was so severe that he had to learn how to walk again.

In July 2003, 18-year-old pitcher Brandon Patch died hours after a shot off a metal bat smashed into his head during an American Legion game.
Oddo's bill is a watered-down version of a similar proposal he introduced in 2001. The chairman of the council's Youth Services Committee, Lewis Fidler, opposed the bill in 2001 because it would have applied to Little League teams, but he supports a measure that is limited to older kids.

"Aluminum bats are a recipe for disaster," he says. "I can live with the compromise."

John Baggs, however, says his son's injury convinced him it is time to ban metal bats at all levels of baseball. "When is a bat too good?" he asks. "When is a bat too dangerous? I think metal bats are too advanced for children's sake."



Originally published on October 22, 2006

I've not read his book and I'll have to give him the benefit of the doubt since he is a published Yale Physics prof, but rationalizing that he is dubious since kids are not all the same size is a borderline moronic statement.

quote:

Yale physics professor Robert Adair, the author of "The Physics of Baseball," says he prefers the crack of a wood bat to the ding of aluminum, but he is not convinced that metal bats pose greater risks. "I'm a bit dubious," he says. "A big strong kid with a wood bat will hit a ball harder than a small kid with an aluminum bat. I find it hard to argue on either side of this debate." But metal bat critics say there is plenty of evidence that wood is safer.

The sooner "PING" is replaced with the crack of wood, the better and safer the kids will be.

Many mixed feelings about this subject.

I would rather see LL, PONY, and the other sanctioning bodies taking the lead in this instead of having legislation crammed down their throats by various state and local governments.

It's hard to argue with the fact that the technology of aluminum bats has gotten crazy. As long as dads across the country can afford the $$$ in an attempt to by Johnny a home run the arms race will continue. The bat companies make so much profit selling the latest titanium plated hyper-steroid bat to Johnny's dad every year they're not going to change unless forced to.

I wonder if there's enough quality wood stock available to fill demand if every youth league across the country started using wood bats.

quote:

I wonder if there's enough quality wood stock available to fill demand if every youth league across the country started using wood bats.

plenty of quality wood is available in the forests of Canada & the Amazon
Costa Rica has lost over 60% of its forest cover to logging, agriculture, and cattle ranching -
BUT - they should be counted on to kick in their remaining 40%
think of the jobs it would create
and if knocking some of those forests down affects global warming, perhaps we could begin to see earlier/warmer spring hs seasons in Ohio


.

quote:

Originally posted by StyleMismatch:

I would rather see LL, PONY, and the other sanctioning bodies taking the lead in this instead of having legislation crammed down their throats by various state and local governments.

I definately agree with this point. I hope that the leagues would start being proactive, and that includes the NCAA and NAIA. There's nothing more that I would like than to be hitting with wood in my college games.

I have one son that is a pitcher in high school and my biggest fear is the line drive up the middle and to close to his head. He has been hit in the shin, could see the seams for weeks after that one. Hit in the wrist that took him out of action for 2 weeks and once in the butt (we have no idea how that happened) but it gave us alot to laugh about. Our oldest son has always been the power hitter. He loves hitting with a wood bat because it is a "pure" hit he says. Last season alone we saw the damage that could come from the Al. bat. My son hit a line drive that the short stop stuck his glove out for and it broke two bones in his hand. Two weeks later happened again but to the 3rd baseman. Third baseman took the ball to the shin. He had to be carried off the field and we found out the next day it broke the bone and he was out his whole senior season. While my son visited both boys after it happened and we talked about the differences between both types of bats. As a parent you have to cringe everytime that ball blazes off the aluminum bat.

Looks like an FSC Certified operation to me...

Gotwood?


cadDAD

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"She grew on him like she was a colony of E. Coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef."
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Amazon ...




Canada ...




aluminum?? .... well it WOULD leave more aluminum for other things!



.

cadDAD:

quote:

Originally posted by AcademyDad:
Looks like an FSC Certified operation to me...

I'm not sure what they've got going on in that photo...could be a FSC Certified operation but, it rather looks like a long, lost episode of Gilligan's Island. Did they ever make it off that deserted isle?

StyleMismatch:

quote:

I wonder if there's enough quality wood stock available to fill demand if every youth league across the country started using wood bats.

You've raised a very good and intelligent question.

There is without doubt enough ash, maple, and other species of wood in our North American forests to more than meet the needs of players at all levels wanting to use wood bats.

You raise the question of quality and that was wise for you to do so. As you may know the quality requirements for the lumber used in the manufacturing of wooden bats is relatively high...not just any old piece of lumber will suffice.

I don't know the precise requirements for the wood, or billets as they are referred to, that are used to make bats.

Here is a link to a website of a company that sells billets to bat manufacturers...it's interesting...

http://www.woodbillets.com/products.asp?cat=11

Please know that I have no affiliation with this company.

Maybe I'll give them a call and ask them how they feel about the supply of good quality logs suitable for cutting billets.

I'll let you know what I find out.

With the advent of laminated ash and maple bats (www.brettbros.com) and bamboo (www.bam****at.com) wood should not be a problem. If you haven't tried them, some of these bats are at least as durable as aluminum.

Good point MTH.