Batmania
The story thus far: A lot of gullible baseball players are using maple bats these days out of conviction that they hit the ball harder, this despite clear evidence to the contrary and the fact that better-performing bats would be banned from use in a heartbeat. Kind of like corking. Old-school ash bats explode into a shower of harmless debris when they break, but maple bats aren’t like that; they tend to snap off and send one large, jagged chunk flying off toward somebody. There were two high-profile injuries caused by flying bat fragments last season. Since the player’s union is absurdly powerful, MLB lacks the authourity to tell the players to knock off with the maple bats; as such, they’ve commissioned a study and are implementing new regulations on the manufacture thereof.
All of which makes me wonder why they don’t just switch to goddamn aluminum or synthetic bats, which would eliminate the problem altogether. I’m given to understand that highly-paid bat scientists have already created an aluminum bat that performs exactly like a wood bat, but, when overstressed, prefers to destroy itself with a damn great dent rather than by shattering. If aluminum won’t work for whatever reason, I find it unpossible to believe that here in the grim darkness of the far future we can’t make some type of synthetic bat that has the same general characteristics.
I love the tradition of baseball, and, sure, neither an aluminum nor a synthetic bat would produce the same "crack" as a wood bat. But you know what? I stop caring when people start dying. Maybe that’s just me.
Oh, also? No, baseball goddamn does not have any obligation to make sure its current contracted bat manufacturers stay in business indefinitely and never have to change the way they do things. These companies are not in fact too big to fail.
