The newspaper calls this column Leather and Wood. It’s a baseball column that focuses on the local big league team. Since the balls and gloves are leather and the bats are wood ? as is my last name ? voila! A clever title is born.
On the other hand, if I was writing about amateur baseball, the title wouldn’t work. I’d have to change my name to Phil Aluminum. Not bloody likely.
When I grew up, every bat in every league was made of wood. Baseball, softball ? it didn’t matter.
All wood. End of story.
After I reached college (the much beloved Austin Peay), the first aluminum bats arrived in sporting goods stores. I actually bought an aluminum softball bat, more as a novelty at the time, but we used it in pickup games for the next three years. I lost track of it, but 35 years later, it may still be in use somewhere, albeit as a tomato plant stake rather than a sporting good.
Aluminum bats have been a staple in amateur baseball for just as long.
It’s a matter of economy; a metal bat lasts many times longer than a wooden bat. Wooden bats crack, split and break, while the metal bats always stay in one piece, though they do develop dead spots after a lot of use.
So, why hasn’t professional baseball gone to metal? That’s easy enough to explain: There’s already too much criticism of the game’s leisurely pace. They don’t want to slow things down any further by constantly having to call time to carry seriously injured players off the field. I’m not joking here.
A metal bat, with its much larger “sweet spot,” in the hands of many professional players, turns a standard line drive into a lethal missile.
If you thought steroids and hGh were performance-enhancing, metal bats would trump them both.
The bats are lighter, increasing bat speed, and the balls leave the bat much, much faster. An inside pitch that results in a pop-up or dribbler off a wooden bat turns into a line drive off metal.
The increased chance of injury from balls coming off metal bats has been debated for a long time on the amateur level, and now, at long last, it appears something may be done about it. New York City Councilman James Oddo has written legislation that will ban the use of all non-wooden bats from game use in New York City public ? and private ? high schools. Oddo, a self-described conservative Republican, believes it’s a public safety issue and is confident that, despite a promised veto from Mayor Michael Bloomberg, he has the votes to override.
Should it become law, NYC would join North Dakota as the only jurisdictions with such a prohibition.
Oddo’s legislation is being watched closely nationwide by coaches and administrators. Much of the research on injuries caused by balls coming off metal bats is still incomplete, and the batmakers themselves have a powerful lobby, even threatening a lawsuit if the bill is passed.
They claim their products are completely safe.
How many times have you heard a coach or parent holler at a batter: “It only takes one”?
With metal bats, in some cases that one is all that’s necessary to cause debilitating injury ? or worse. Here’s my vote for all wood, all the time.
Phil Wood has covered sports in the Washington-Baltimore market for more than 30 years. You can reach him at [email protected].
