Wood bat vs. Metal bat debate

Interesting.
Got a whiff of that a while back while son was on the cape, some HR sluggers in the college game come to wood bat leagues and can't hit as far, I didn't pay atttention at the time.

Easy to solve for championship games, have the NCAA purchase bats and give everyone the same, no one can complain, not sure if this has been a concern why they didn't address it sooner, but hey, that's the NCAA.

You don't even need statistics to back up the debate about metal vs wood. I've seen some senior legion games played on a local league Babe Ruth size field with dimensions ranging from 300-340 LF-RF and college kids that hit hard hit balls aren't clearing the fence that normally go out with ease and ground balls are much easier to handle. I've seen more errors from rushing throws from softer hit balls or throwing errors but far less hotshots on the ground resulting in more routine plays which would increase fielding %.

Metal bats need to be banned at all levels and go back to wood. Of course bat companies would lose money if only certain areas of the sport are going to wood. If everybody bans metal, the bat companies will produce more wood bats and sell more wood bats. Broken bats will have to be replaced. Bat companies will make their money so I don't buy into bat companies suffering if baseball at all levels shift back to wood.

IMO, the reason metal bats will never go away is because it will expose who the real hitters are and knock out the power of just about everybody who plays baseball and rare few have that gift where they can hit a 450Ft HR with a broomstick. That's the biggest fear of going back to wood.

We have been using wood bats almost exclusively since 1993 for most everything we do. We have been a leader in making wood bats popular in amateur baseball and have seen many new wood bat companies pop up and all of them contact us. No one is a bigger proponent of using wood.

That said...

Here is something I've often wondered about. I think the argument regarding cost being an issue has gone away. The argument should be about the cost of a metal bat! People can buy a cheap used car for the price of a metal bat.

What do people think would happen if high school and above went with wood only?

Would the price of wood bats sky rocket (supply and demand) to the point that it really is too costly? Or would the cost of wood bats go down because of more production.

There are other things to consider. Is there plenty of wood available?

After considering everything, I still think there are many very good reasons for switching to wood.

Want to hear something totally absurd---listening to this same debate on a TV sport talk show the other day a noted sportwriter , he shall remain nameless, was touting the use of metal bats in the "bigs"----ARE YOU KIDDING ME !!!!

I think that PG will agree with me that with wood we have better baseball, quicker games ( we had a 1-0 , 7 inning, 55 minute game in one of our tournaments)

Using metal you would never get an event like Jupiter completed unless you had a zillion fields and then where do you get the umpires


One thing to keep in mind regarding the so called "exploding" maple bats in the bigs---realize that the players get their bats made to order and they like the thin handle for the whip effect----this is why they explode as they do--- we get 24 maple bats every year for our team and after showcases and tournaments and many kids who never hit with wood before we have at least 20 remaining at the end of the year---that is not a lot of breakage but we stay away from the thin handled bats---that is two showcases plus 10 weekends of tournament play

The debate will continue

Great point TR - I'd like to see the pros go to a minimum diameter for wood bats. I don't think it would take much to slow down or stop the current exploding bat problem.

As for the use of wood in college and high school - I have long thought that the cost issue was a red herring and that the real issue is sponsorships. I'd love to see colleges and high schools go back to wood only.

quote:

Want to hear something totally absurd---listening to this same debate on a TV sport talk show the other day a noted sportwriter , he shall remain nameless, was touting the use of metal bats in the "bigs"----ARE YOU KIDDING ME !!!!

I had someone tell me that the major leagues were the only guys that used wood bats awhile back. LOL

FWIW, many coaches get paid for using a specific companies products. You buy our products and we'll give you money, it's allowed and has to be declared. This supplements their income.

That could be your red herring.

quote:

Originally posted by TPM:
FWIW, many coaches get paid for using a specific companies products. You buy our products and we'll give you money, it's allowed and has to be declared. This supplements their income.

That could be your red herring.

They'd still get paid only by wood bat companies

I agree with all these comments, better games, faster games, lower pitch counts etc....

But I do not agree with the cost thing. My son’s team has played in three wood bat tournaments this summer and I do not believe I saw a single game where at least one bat was broken. (I saw three bats broken completely in half) When I hear people talk about the difference in price they compare the top end aluminum bat $400 to a cheap-o wood bat at $55. If you compare top end to top end you are talking $400 to $120. (More accurate is $200 to $65) Since there is no comparison in life time I do not think cost is a reason to go to wood bats. (Game contact compared to cage/PB on a wood bat is about 1 to 400, do some people use aluminum in the cage then wood in the game)

Having said that, as I said in the beginning I am 100% in favor of wood bats but the cost being cheaper is a joke. (Unless you never practice and the umps will not allow inside pitches)

My son and all the 16-18 year old kids I have talked with love the wood bat game and say they wish it was wood all the time.

.
Moot point...Genies do not go back into bottles...

...can make a REALLY good, solid, logical. emotional, financial, fairness of competition, and health concerns case in each instance for the following but they are not coming back in a big way either...

My top 10 things that are not coming back:


10. Wooden clubheads are not coming back in golf.

9. Wooden tennis racquets are not coming back in tennis.

8. Cell phones may be here to stay.

7. Atomic Bombs

6. Dogs now belong in purses

5. The three point line

4. Soft helments in Football

3. Full sentences (The anti Twitter/Text). OPBD KT BFF!

2. Cheap gas

And the #1 thing that is not coming back?..

1. My hair

OBS44:

Maybe not....

So O-44, I got this e-mail from a guy in Nigeria that wants me to invest 50k into payphones ... but you think this cell phone fad is going to stick eh?

quote:

Originally posted by observer44:
And the #1 thing that is not coming back?..

1. My hair

And that my friend is why they invented hats

I was a proponent of wood until this weekend when 130lb 13YO son one hops the fence on a big field twice with his brand new CF3 black. (off 16U pitchers) I think a Obama-like thrill went up my leg.
Composite all the way baby!

My son (sixteen) is playing 54 wood bat games this summer. I cringed when I was at a friend's son's game and heard the ping of a metal bat. If your kid plays a season of wood bat, you won't like metal.

The big thrill is seeing a ball fly out of a college park with a wood bat. Coming back to the dugout my son pointed at me in the stands and said, "You can put away that 'when I was a kid' line now!" The best baseball sound is a ball being crushed by wood. And you get real scores like 5-3 and 6-4. Tonight as a big hitting night. They won 8-4.

Just as a point of information, the Connie Mack League has gone to wood nationwide this year. AABC still allows the 16u Mickey Mantle League to use metal, but neither the Connie Mack or Stan Musial Leagues use anything but wood nationwide now. It makes for great baseball.

quote:

And you get real scores like 5-3 and 6-4. Tonight as a big hitting night. They won 8-4.

My son is also 16 and in the past two weekend wood bat tournaments we had three 1-0 games! One was a walk off single in the bottom of the 7th. Every base runner becomes critical in these games.

I have a wood bat question for you guys though.

My son has also been using wood bats during BP/cage work. (Lot's of hitting over the past two weeks) He has never had blisters on his hands before but for some reason he has blisters on both hands/fingers. We are assuming it is from wood vs aluminum. He is having to take a couple days off PB to allow this to heal. Has anyone else experienced this? (Maybe we are wrong and it has more to do with the heat and 400+ cuts in the tunnel with sweaty hands)

I think the "better baseball" aspect of wood is a matter of perspective. Most basball fans like a higher action game with more hits and scoring. It's basically why MLB and the union turned a blind eye to all the juiced up players the past decade. It put fannies in the seats and made a lot of people rich.

I'm on the other end of the debate. While I Coach, I'm still a pitcher at heart. There is nothing like throwing an inside pitch, and hearing a bat break. However that same pitch with a metal bat can be hit on the handle 300FT..........

quote:

Originally posted by RJM:
The best baseball sound is a ball being crushed by wood.

I second that!!!

LionPop,
My son has had blisters on his hands from swinging wood with a fresh taped handle without gloves.Now he wears his batting gloves anytime he will be swinging for awhile and it hasn't happened again.

Wood bat leagues seem to be the norm for high school summer leagues in our area. American Legion has gone to wood too. The only thing left is to get the high schools themselves to change back to wood.

thanks Sugi

Son is playing Connie Mack this summer with wood bats. Took a while but he is hitting well now - 3 for four last nite with a home run - it was sweet! And when we play tourneys with metal he still uses wood... crazy huh? I agree a hit off the handle of a metal bat is just not right...

I agree. My 15 yr old is playing both Connie Mack (Wood) and the local AL A Ball (metal bat). Hitting .313 in CM and .622 in AL. Has not yet learned to drive the (sweet spot) to the ball as opposed to just getting the bat on plane. 3 dimensional hitting versus 2 dimensional hitting.

When, on cold mornings (it is here in the mornings), he gets a significant "bat sting" I tell him its the "bat talking to him" saying "I don't want to break.....get the sweet spot on the ball".

IMO - Aluminum bats are the single worst thing that has happened to youth baseball in my lifetime.

It makes a mockery of the game.

Wood bats are the only way to play the game !!!!

Son is playing in a college wood-bat league this summer, and I'm loving the sound of it, not to mention the lower-scoring, more crisply-played games. You find out who can hit when guys are swinging wood and how much pop they really have. A 4-2 score is baseball, not 14-12. I'd love to see the college game go to wood, but I also know how tightly-woven aluminum bat companies are with college coaches.

catfish

Thank you !!!!

With the introduction of composites, the argument that wood bats 'cost too much' simply doesn't hold water anymore.

Three good $90 composites will last at least as long one solid $300 aluminum bat.

Lets start teaching kids to hit the ball properly instead of letting them get by with this AL stuff.

If the community colleges in Arizona can do it, than NCAA DI can figure out how as well.

My son's 19U team just finished a wood bat tourney today. They played 8 games, broke 4 bats. That's probably what, $300?

Wood bats probably would be a bit more expensive, or at least it could be more expensive, depending on how the metal bat inventory is handled.

But wood is baseball. The sound is baseball. There is nothing like the sound and sight of a hard hit ball off a wood bat.

We run a fall woodbat league (www.nhbaseball.org) and there are far more bats broken in the early season than towards the end. The kids actually have to learn how to hit instead of getting bailed out by technology.

its just sepperating the boys from the men.

That sounds like a soon to be GSBA T-Shirt Slogan.

i have be using that since i went like 420 at a ball field. it wasa homerun over left center at a local prison ballfield. and yes i am only 16

quote:

i have be using that since i went like 420 at a ball field. it wasa homerun over left center at a local prison ballfield. and yes i am only 16

What were you in for??

we played there for school ball because the team wasa travel ball team.