What would it take to get wood bats returned to HS baseball?

The brutal truth? A few more serious injuries or worse.

Wood bats should not be forced upon kids or their parents. No offense to you BOF, but to say that the cost of wood and aluminum bats is the same and then call it a fact is wrong. I bought my son one aluminum bat that he used for 3 years playing Varsity H.S. ball. It was not top of the line and cost less than $200.00. Playing the wood bat AAU summer ball I spent more than that in one weekend tournament. The whole team was forced to use composite bats supplied by the coach during the summer. Not one player used wood bats supplied by dad.

You say that aluminum bats make the fielders/pitchers more vulnerable. But the reality is that there are so few injuries from balls coming off of bats as to be statistically insignificant. This data from insurance companies has been posted here before.

As far as skewing the ability to hit a baseball, I will agree that aluminum bats and their larger sweet spot are more forgiving of hitters mistakes. But that may be a good thing for keeping kids interested in playing the game.

And baseball will continue to drift from its roots as it evolves. The reality of the economics of baseball, improvments in equipment and plenty of others factors will continue to force adjustments to the game.

I don't know if H.S. pitchers are pitching differently now vs when there were wood bats. High Schools have been using aluminum as long as I can remember.

I agree with you that wood bats do sound much better. I'm just not sure how important that is.

Dear Dad, spoken like someone who's son doesn't pitch?

Metal bats are awful.

-the end.

DOD,

There is good evolution - and there is bad evolution.

Metal bats make a mockery of the game and should be banned IMO.

Cost - 1 metal rocketlauncher for my son - $259 - lasts a year. Wood bat purchases this year - 5 at $42 each. My experience - each and every year for the last 4 years has been similar. Metal rocket launchers cost more.

BESR - tests are BS. The ball flys off the metal rocket launchers at a much faster speed. I am glad my kids dont pitch.

Making the game interesting - As I said before - makes a mockery of the game. It is more for the ego of the player and than parent IMO.

Metals bats really suck IMO

Here's my take on metal bats. They are BAD for every aspect of the game. The obvious that have been mentioned above and this one: Wood bat tourney; plan your games on 2 hours or 2:15 and stay on schedule easy. Metal bats you have to plan 3 hours or put in other ridiculous time limits, tiebreakers etc.... They stink.

I say bring back wood but there obviously are TWO sides to this story because metal bats continue to be the preferred choice of the vast majority. Have we ever thought about why that remains? As the father of a pitcher/hitter and one that has gone from metal to wood let me see if I can explain my thoughts on this. My son was a two way player in HS and college plus he has pitched in many tournaments and fall leagues that were wood. As the father of my son “the pitcher” I never felt any more concerned with him facing hitters with metal over wood. A comebacker is a comebacker and I haven’t been convinced that the reduced velocity of wood is significant enough to allow a pitcher enough additional time to protect himself from a linedrive. Yes I know there is a difference but I don’t think wood is SIGNIFICANTLY safer for those balls hit in a direction and in a manner that would injure a pitcher. I think pitches that are hit with a metal bat that would have been an out or a broken bat with wood are not the “rockets” that injure the pitchers. As the father of “the pitcher” I both know the approach to the batter swinging wood is different. It gives the pitcher more of an advantage. I know metal is more forgiving and generates more offense and changes the makeup of the game but that could be considered good to many fans. Sometimes I think the parents of pitchers that advocate going to wood knows their sons can make more mistakes at the high school levels when facing wood and not be knocked out of the game.

As the father of “the hitter” I was looking for an advantage for my son. I could provide what I perceived as an advantage by purchasing a “better” aluminum bat. Nitrogen filled scandium was just for starters. 33 or 34? Buy both and then decide. Is the bat dead? Don’t ask that question just buy another one. Different bats when facing different pitchers ---- different bats when facing live BP vs. batting cages. Wood here and aluminum there. Could I spend two hundred dollars and have it last all year? No way! My son could flatten a bat in two games to where it wasn’t usable. Trust me I had the return address for Easton and Louisville Slugger on my computer and when I couldn’t get it replaced under warranty I bought another one.

IF it was a wood vs. aluminum vote and affected every player in this country I would vote wood. If it was JUST our high school team or JUST our school system or JUST our state I would stick with aluminum because I feel as if it has to be a level playing field and to swing wood would place the batter at a disadvantage against metal.

Is aluminum “bad” for the game? Not in my opinion. Yes it changes the game considerably; sounds tinny, looks different but I don’t necessarily see that as “bad”. It provides more offense, provides more opportunity for the defense to make spectacular plays and allow more players to factor into the final outcome of the game. The kid that can’t hit his way out of a paper bag with wood can at least get a bloop single every now and then with aluminum. Baseball should be played with wood because ---------- But until it is we parents have to adjust to the game. You can melt your aluminum bat in protest but until it comes to a yes/no vote I’ll keep my high dollar aluminum bats.
Fungo

It's hard to argue with your logic, Fungo.

As much as I hate to say it, infidel_son loves his new rocket launcher. We'll see at the end of the season if it was worth the $$$. He's pretty good with wood, but I guess he wanted to have fun and see just how far he could blast 'em.


Good one, Woodrow.

and the reason people pay outrageous amounts of money for these metal bats are because nobody wants to get beaten by 'technology'.. If you have a good pitcher and he beats us, fine; I'll tip my cap and move on. But we don't want to lose a game (or the scholly) to technology....

Woodrow, cue the picture of Sputnik taking off....

Wood (and GotWood) solves this issue.

quote:

Here's my take on metal bats. They are BAD for every aspect of the game. The obvious that have been mentioned above and this one: Wood bat tourney; plan your games on 2 hours or 2:15 and stay on schedule easy. Metal bats you have to plan 3 hours or put in other ridiculous time limits, tiebreakers etc.... They stink.

Coach not to defend metal just because it's metal but your statement makes no sense to me. Wood prolongs the games because of the restricted offense. My son played in a MILB short “A” 22-inning marathon between the Batavia Muckdogs and Auburn Doubledays. That contest started on July 7, was suspended after 20 innings and completed on Aug. 14. The next year the Oneonta Tigers defeated the Brooklyn Cyclones, 6-1, in 26 innings. The longest game in Minor League history remains Pawtucket's 33-inning victory over Rochester that began on April 18, 1981, and ended two months later on June 23. There was a thread here the other day about the longest high school game ----
Fungo

Can't compare those minor league games with professional pitching to hs games with hs defense and pitching. To me the metal bat did what increasing the size of a basketball goal about 50% (or a hockey net increasing in size) would do to the game. It just made it a different game. Makes sense to me, that I just don't like that change.

And, they ARE a safety factor.

I guess the other factor for me is we play doubleheaders and the metal bat means these are marathons. It takes more pitchers and for the casual fan they look at it as ridiculous that the games take so long... I really believe wood would help this and in MY SITUATION would improve things overall...

Good 1st post Fungo. However I thought metal bats prolonged games as a whole.

It's funny that some of us old timers want to change the game because "thats the way it should be played". Haven't we experienced through our lives the result of adults trying to change what kids do? I know as a kid if I loved metal I would be pessed and maybe lose interest in the game if my parents made me change because I'm not playing the game the way dad did.

I think skateboards are more dangerous than a metal bat................but they still roll on.

Injuries .......show me stats from an unbiased source that takes into consideration that kids are also stronger today and that the same issues would not be there with wood in place. While BSA is not a perfect fix, it was successful in stopping a good part of the technology that bat makers had in creating the "perfect weapon" a few years back. Let's evolve from there and work off those rules and not try to turn back the hands of time.

Bat makers, while making a profit, have significant R&D tied into bat making. Those cost are depreciated over time and there's no way that lobby will let this go without a fight. Parents who find the fight worthy, and have kids involved in the metal bat game today, will be gone tomorrow, but the bat companies will still have their army in the trenches. In most cases you will not beat the well oiled machine with part time warriors.

btw- I'm a wood bat fan................starting at the college level

A repeat - IMO:

Compliments of Dire Straits and a few changed words

Warning lights are flashing down at Quality Control,
someone faked a BESR and they threw him in the hole.
There's rumors in the loading bay and anger in the town,
somebody blew the whistle and the walls came tumbling down.

There's a meeting in the boardroom, they're trying to trace the smell,
there's leaking in the washroom, there's a sneak in personnel.
Somewhere in the corridors someone was heard to sneeze:
'Goodness me, could this be? Industrial Disease.

The batmaker was crucified for sleeping at his post,
they're refusing to be pacified, it's him they blame the most.
The watchdog's got rabies, the foreman's got fleas,
and everyone's concerned about Industrial Disease.

There's panic on the switchboard, tongues are tied in knots,
some come out in sympathy, some come out in spots.
Some blame the management,some the employees,
But everybody knows it's the Industrial Disease.

The work force is disgusted - they are taking walks
innocence is injured, experience just talks.
Everyone seeks damages and everyone agrees,
that these are 'classic symptoms of a monetary squeeze'.

On ABC and CBS they talk about the curse
Logic is just useless - the science is even worse.
History boils over - there's an economics freeze
We know whats really happening - an "Industrial Disease".

Jim Morrison hated aluminum bats too - LOL

There's blood in the streets, it's up to my ankles
It came
Blood in the streets, it's up to my knee
It came
Blood in the streets in the town of Chicago
It came
Blood on the rise, it's following me
Think about the break of day

They came and then they drove away
Sunlight in their hair

They came
Blood in the streets runs a river of sadness
They came
Blood in the streets it's up to my thigh
They came
Yeah the river runs red down the legs of a city
They came
We are are crying red rivers of weepin'

They came into town and then they drove away
Sunlight in their hair

Players scattered on their highway bleeding
Ghosts crowd the young child's fragile eggshell mind

Blood in the streets in the town of New Haven
Blood stains the roofs and the palm trees of Venice
Blood in my love in the terrible summer
Bloody red sun of fantastic L.A.

Blood screams our brain as they chop off our fingers
Blood will be born in the birth of a nation
Blood is the rose of mysterious union

There's blood in the streets, it's up to my ankles
Blood in the streets, it's up to my knee
Blood in the streets in the town of Chicago
Blood on the rise, it's following me


And all - for a ******* buck and a pump to the ego.

Disgusting - IMO

David Byrne hated the metal rocket launchers too!

And they were lying in the grass
And they could hear the highway breathing
And they could see a nearby factory
They made sure we could not dream
They saw the lights of a neighbors house
Now they started to rise
They took a minute to concentrate
And open up our eyes - LOL

The world was moving and they were right there with it.
The world was moving and they were floating above it.

And they were drifting through our backyard
And making us a new dress
And they were moving very slowly
Rising up above the earth
Moving into the universe
Drifting this way and that
Not touching ground at all
Up above the yard

And they were glad about it... no doubt about it
They arent sure where its gone - but they dont care
No time to think about what to tell them
No time to think about what they have done
And they were

And now they looking at themselves (maybe)
And things look like a movie
They have a pleasant elevation - and a few bucks
They will move out in all directions


They are disgusting. IMO.