Anybody Read

[the_truth 10]

In the BDT today about the guy in VA who got hit by a softball over the weekend and died. My softball days have long since been over but the way the bats have gotten better over the years it is a wonder that more pitchers havent been killed playing slow pitch.

[BigD4VT 11]

I have been hit in with the ball in every sport except baseball and softball. I was hit in the leg with a bat at an Orioles game, had a baseball miss my head by two inches at an Orioles game, and once had a softball hit my camera bag and shatter a lens hood. There have been many other close calls but I've been lucky. I cringe when I see parents come on the field to take pictures. It's just too dangerous if you don't know what you're doing.

 

I've never seen a player or coach get hit with a batted ball, other than catchers and umpires taking a foul off the mask. I agree about the bats and I think metal should be banned. Wood was good enough for almost 100 years and is still good enough for the pros.

[trublue 939]

I read this article earlier in the month about the "newer" metal bats....

 

http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/highschool/headlines/89964742.html

 

excerpt:

 

"Item 1: What on Earth are they making bats out of these days?

 

I believe these new “stealth†bats — at least, that’s how I’ve heard a couple coaches refer to them — are made out of graphite or some hybrid metals or alloys.

 

It took me years to get used to the now familiar ping of aluminum replacing the crack of wood, but it’s difficult to even describe the sound I heard a few times over the last week.

 

Both of the home runs Greg Brody hit in Mill Creek’s win over Peachtree Ridge on March 31 sounded more like he was hitting one of those rubberized balls that the pitching machine throws to you in the batting cage than horsehide.

 

It’s also hard to tell what affect the new material is having on how quickly the ball travels off them when hit."

 

================================================================

 

Following is another article I read about the metal bats:

 

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/highschool/s_675885.html

 

excerpt:

 

"Yet, the NFHS has already approved new regulations to further limit the restitution — or trampoline effect — of metal bats, making them perform more like a similar-sized wooden bat, but those restrictions won't be enforced until Jan. 1, 2012.

 

On that date, all current non-wood bats will be deemed illegal.

 

"Technology has increased so much that they're now trying to slow it down a little bit," said North Allegheny athletic director Bob Bozzuto, a member of the WPIAL and PIAA baseball steering committees. The PIAA follows the lead of the NFHS, and the WPIAL adheres to PIAA rules.

 

 

In 2012, the NFHS will begin measuring the Batted Coefficient of Restitution, which tests the trampoline effect of a baseball bouncing off the bat.

 

"I think technology can bring things back down so that the new metal bats are like wooden bats," Bozzuto said, "because metal bats have changed the game."

 

"I'm not trying to take anyone's bat away," Huffman said, adding that he has already received resistance from manufacturers. "We need to take a precautionary measure on an interim basis while new standards are getting developed."

[Lance 228]

i am a firm believer that any type of baseball or softball should be played with standard weight wooden bats...would be no real problems and although still dangerous to some extent it would not be nearly as bad.

[GMan 3,569]

Wooden bats are cost prohibitive especially at the high school level. The technology is out there now to make bats out of composite materials that "play" the same as wood. This is what will be used in 2012.

[blueinbama 259]

Wooden bats are cost prohibitive especially at the high school level. The technology is out there now to make bats out of composite materials that "play" the same as wood. This is what will be used in 2012.

 

Exactly. The cost factor was the primary reason high schools and colleges went to the aluminum bat in the first place. Wooden bats were too costly to replace. These new bats should solve that problem, and solve the problem of a ball jumping off of a bat at a million miles per hour!

[Lance 228]

cost...everything has to boil down to the mighty dollar...baseball and anything like it should be played with wooden bats...but, that's just me.