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.
The NCAA has already implemented standards that require metal bats to, effectively, perform no better than wood bats. This is measured by the BESR or “Ball Exit Speed Ratio” and no metal bats can be used in college baseball that aren’t “BESR Certified”. You really can’t go into a sporting goods store these days and buy a baseball bat that *isn’t* BESR Certified because there’s no market for them–the NCAA, most High School associations, and even many recreational leagues ban the use of metal bats that aren’t BESR Certified.
If I’m reading this right and it’s even remotely correct, MLB could buy off-the-shelf bats that perform no better than wooden bats, at least as far as ball exit speed is concerned. Of course, there’s more to bat performance than ball exit speed. The days of jamming guys inside would be over if MLB switched to metal bats. It’s already long gone from the college game, where pitchers live and die on the outside corner, and “coming inside” is something many of them don’t learn until making the minor leagues. This is because it’s possible to hit a ball off the handle of a metal bat and have it bloop for a hit, whereas the same pitch hit by a wood bat would either shatter the wood bat or simply not go as far (because of PHYSICS and MATH I hear) and thus be an infield pop-out or a ground out.
Comment by Dave | 21 January 2009