Illinois Legislation/Wood Bats

IMO aluminum bats are just fine and probably improve regular high school play. Only the upper tier high school players can hit wood bats effectively. Wood bats in high schools would result in too many 2-1 games.

College is an all together different issue but I'm sure the bat industry understands that if colleges were to switch to wood, high schools would soon follow.

What's wrong with 2-1 games? I'd rather see that normally than a 15-9 game or something like that.

If a 2-1 game is a result of excellent pitching, great. However if its a result of bad hitters weakly grounding out to the second baseman all day long, that's just a boring game to watch. Again, the elite travel kids adjust to wood well by the end of summer and its a great game to watch. I just don't see it happening for the every day high school player. I know the purists have different opinions.

We participated in the wood bat study last year and at the beginning I thought the same things as igball. Most of our games were 2-1, 3-0 etc. By the end of the year, the kids really did learn to hit with them. The problem was that we found out about the study in November/December (don't remember this exactly) and the kids had from them until the March 15th to learn how to hit with wood.

By the end of the year, scores were back up to 5-4, 7-4 for example. I actually felt that wood bats made the game more exciting. Walks and other mistakes are magnified because you can't count on your offense scoring 8 or 9 runs each game to make up for your mistakes. Kids who threw strikes and learned to throw inside were rewarded. That is not always the case with aluminum bats.

BC, couldnt agree more, we play alot of wood bat and they do just fine. It will be along time before this ever happens if ever, too much money being made by the bat companies.

Don't most players hit with wood for the entire off season?

No. In fact, I don't know of all that many that DO hit with wood in the off season. For one thing, as embraced here, there really isn't an "offseason" for many now. They play in this league, that league, this other league, and the high school league.

Every player I know or have worked with seems to hit with wood from october until at least tryouts for their high school team. In Chicago we have an off season with fall ball ending in October and high school starting in Feb. Seems like a good time to get work done.

Igball's argument is that the games with wood bats result in "boring games to watch" Huh? High school ball is not designed to provide entertainment for the spectactors. There are a lot of arguments for and against wood bats, I just don't think pleasing the spectactors is one of them.

The studies that have been done by the IHSA do not reflect aluminum bats being any more dangerous than the wood bats. In fact the only serious injury last season in Illinois from a batted ball was off a wooden bat. I think the change to minus 3 bats has helped. The rule got changed in New York mainly because of a politician trying to make a name for himself. I have nothing against wooden bats but I hate to see knee jerk legislation based on someone's political agenda. Remember the plastic spikes and all the knee injuries that occured? That was a rule change that happened without any studies on plastic spikes being done. My only concern with wooden bats is lower level kids trying to swing them. Many have a hard enough time adjusting to the minus 3 bats. Lets continue to study the issue before pushing through legislation from someone that is not a baseball person.

quote:

Originally posted by 2bagger:
Don't most players hit with wood for the entire off season?

With all due respect to Bulldog, we have quite a few hitters here swinging wood in the off-season. The benefit is quite noticeable come spring time when they switch back to metal.

Bravescoach, that's just my personal observation. No problem

In fact I had at least one person my junior year make fun of me for hitting with wood, wearing a short sleeve jacket, and wearing turf shoes saying something about those things being "coach's things" or something like that. Now he does as well

I noticed a couple underclassmen at my high school were hitting with wood last week.

Since this appears to mainly a cost issue as far as why a program would not switch to wood, this might be a stupid question, but are the ways to lessen "spring" in an aluminum bat without making the bat weaker?

I know about the steps w/aluminum bats (-3), but would the feel of a wood bat and increased durability be considered a benefit of a composite bat?

I've heard a little bit about them, but not enough to determine whether they would be middle ground between wood and aluminum.

I think it started as a cost issue but I don't think that could be the case anymore as exogrid and such are $350 while a very good wood bat is $60.

The bill this guy was proposing was only for under the age of 13. Do the little guys even generate enough bat speed to make a difference between wood or aluminum? I think this guy was jumping on the NY thing without understanding the issue.

There are kids at 12 years of age in excess of 130 pounds swinging full barrel -8 bats from pitchers throwing between 47 and 50 feet. Kind of dangerous I would say. The issue should be limiting the size of the barrell not the aluminum on a 60' to 70' foot basepath. I know little league still limits the barrel size but travel baseball states if you can swing it bring it.

The research I've seen says that the key is the BESR (Bat Exit Speed Ratio) rating on aluminum. Control that and you reduce the likelihood of injury. All aluminum does is increase the size of the sweet spot, turning what should be "outs" into cheap hits. And thus satisfying the ever-growing demand for more offense from those who don't understand or can't comprehend the beauty of well-executed baseball strategy. "Why think - when we can just pound the **** out of the ball?"