quote:Originally posted by Beezer:
Some quick thoughts on this.....
Wood vs metal - I tend to agree that a ball hit on the sweet spot will have about the same exit velocity with either bat material. The huge difference is the hits towards the handle and end of the barrel. With the increased sized sweet spot, there's an creased risk for injury with metal bats.
I agree that this is a "big diamond", "big player" issue that wood would fix. On the little field it may be frustrating for all concerned to see a ball stop half way to third on a full swing when metal may actually result in more fielding. LL coaching mentality already has the "weaker" players in the outfield, with wood they would probably have even less action.
Besides LL umpiring has a strikezone as big as a fridge, the wood sweet spot would seldom be hit because the ball is seldom there which I believe is a point that has not been factored into this discussion.
Performance - some of you have mentioned how little Johnny's daddy wants him to look good and metal gives him an edge. My counter to that is IF they only have wood to use, it's all relative. Little Johhny will still hit it further than his teammates, just not as far as with metal (in some cases).
Again, a "Big Field" statement that is probably agreed with across the board. On the "Little Field" we talk about dads who want Johnnie to hit it farther than Billy. We don't talk about Timmy's dad who wants the lil' guy to at least have a chance to one-hop it out of the infield. My bet is our kids had a level of success throughout little league that was matched by only by a small group in the league. Most in those league didn't have near the talent our kids had. This debate is comprised of opinions of parents whos kids that were successful, most others do not fall in that catagory during the "Little diamond" years. The next statement here is "they should be taught". Heck, the ol' man doesn't make an effort as it is, will he if it takes even more effort.
We sit on a throne with other parents of good baseball players. Most feel, including myself, that bottom line wood is the way. We however are a minority in the BIG picture of LL participants. This is an issue where conceptually we are probably right, but, realistically, we don't put food on those tables, tuck those kids in after he gets his first hit in 5 games, or see the smile on their face when they get a shiny bat like the rest of the guys on the team. Those things are hard hard to fight against.
My comments are directed to the little diamond only. If you want to teach your kid at that time to use wood he will be ahead in the long run. But I think there are a lot of "sellable" arguments from the other side that puts a halt to ang grassroot movement that goes back to a "wood only world".
Say that 3 times fast
