So what's up with this sudden hatred for maple bats?

The way ESPN talks about it, you'd think that Al Queda was making baseball bats.

I have a couple of thoughts. One, is that the professional players have the handles whittled down as thin as they can get them so all the weight is in the barrell. Of course they're going to break on hits away from the sweet spot. My boys have used maple bats in practice and the occasional wood bat tourney for several years and have never broken one.

Secondly, is this simply unnecessary paranoia? I mean, how many thousands of hits are there in a season and what minute percentage of those hits result in broken bats.

However, if this takes away from the steroid conversation then maybe it's not all bad.

Biggerpapi, speaking of Al Qaeda.. Osama just came out with a new maple bat, THE BLASTMASTER!

"Guaranteed to explode on impact, the BLASTMASTER is perfect for rookie Jihadists," said O, sporting a freshly trimmed beard. "I use mine for cave rats and keeping the seven virgins in line," he said excitedly, "but really I designed the BLASTMASTER for sacrifices and long bombs".

Osama demonstrated the BLASTMASTER by lining a shot off the wall and sending shards into the head of an innocent umpire.

"With the maple BLASTMASTER," said Bin Laden, "who needs weapons of mass destruction?"

Bum,



I was listening to Vin Scully the other day and maybe this is his new crusade. Wasn't he at the forefront of the helmets for base coaches thing before Coolbaugh's accident?

It's a conspiracy, louisville Slugger used to corner the market, now there are tons of small bat manufacturers, that only produce maple bats. The less compitition, the more money for them.

can you imagine if the media got on aluminum bats like this?

we ahve a mat manufacturer involved with our program and we have been using them for a number of years

We get two dozen to use every year---for the showcases and our team and that is a lot of swings--- if we break two a season that is a lot and we have not seen them "explode" as is being talked about-- the problem , as noted above , is that the MLB players wnat the thinnest handles they can get---thicken the handles and they will be fine

I can tell you we won't stop using them because they are durable and our kids love them

What is stupid about it is the fact that they fail to mention that ash bats break to. These guys make it sound like ash bats have never once broke

The issue is HOW they break. The ash generally splinters, whereas the maple bats explode. Instead of a ban, I see MLB compromising with the MLBPA and regulate the handle size and the drop to no greater than -2.

biggerpappi ...

quote:

Secondly, is this simply unnecessary paranoia? I mean, how many thousands of hits are there in a season and what minute percentage of those hits result in broken bats.

As mentioned by JT, the concern seems to be based on how the maple bats break compared to the ash bats. And I must say that there certainly seem to be a lot more bats breaking than in the past, seemingly more than just one or two per game . When those maple bats go, the head of the bat looks like it could cause a lot of injury/damage anybody was caught by the flying head of the bat. Having a son who is on the mound when he is in a game, I would like the problem to be solved before ("if" you say?) he ever makes it to the show.