Metal Bats vs Wood Bats Opinion

I recently wrote Mr. Charles Adams, director NCHSAA concerning the possible switch from metal bats to all wood bats in high school. His reply was polite and said the switch was under study by the national organization which governs NC. My question was then sent to the supervisor of officials and again I received a reply which is as follows.

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Mr. Adams forwarded your email to me. We, North Carolina, follow National Federation rule code that monitors manufacture specifications for all equipment. The BSPR, Bat Speed Performance Ratio, has been studied and is accepted in a range compliant with rule code. We do not have the option to enforce different codification than what the NFHS establishes.

Mark Dreibelbis
Supervisor of Officials

My question arose because of the following article:
Metal bats about to become legal issue
WAYNE, N.J. (AP) _ She wraps her arms around her son, gently raising the spindly 14-year-old boy off a couch to his feet. She hugs him and rubs his back, whispering “I love you” over and over.
Steven Domalewski moves his head to kiss his mother, but all he can manage are slurping sounds in front of her lips. His head flops onto her shoulder, spent from the effort.
Less than two years ago, Domalewski was a happy, healthy star pitcher on a youth baseball team coached by his father. He loved mar-tial arts, climbed every tree on the block and zoomed down his street on inline skates. He once shot an arrow into the wall of his basement rec room.
Now Domalewski is severely disabled, left with brain damage after being struck in the chest by a line drive that stopped his heart while he was playing in a youth baseball game.
His family plans to file a lawsuit Monday against the maker of the metal bat that was used in the game, against Little League Baseball and a sporting goods chain that sold the bat. The family contends metal baseball bats are inherently unsafe for youth games because the ball comes off them much faster than from wooden bats.
There has been a string of injuries the past two decades involving metal bats launching balls that have killed or maimed young players across the country.
The Domalewskis' lawyer claims bat manufacturers put speed ahead of safety; one even advertised a bat so powerful it is capable of “beaning the third base-man” with a line drive.
Attorney Ernest Fronzuto says Domalewski will need millions of dollars worth of medical care for the rest of his life.
Other than the word “Yeah,” which he repeats over and over, or “Dadada” which he sometimes utters when he sees his father, Steven cannot speak. He also can’t walk or stand on his own, and needs help with everything from using the bathroom to eating.
“My son is serving a sen-tence, and the only thing he did was pitch to an alu-minum bat,” said his father, Joseph Domalewski.
Steven Domalewski’s life changed forever on June 6, 2006, an overcast evening in which his Tomascovic Chargers were playing the Gensinger Motors team on the Wayne Police Athletic League field.
Domalewski was pitching on the mound 45 feet from home plate. He wasn’t a hard thrower, but he had excellent control. In the fourth inning, the first two batters reached base. He went to a full count on the third batter.
What happened next unfolded in a flash, but has resulted in an agonizing, slow-motion purgatory for Steven and his family.
The batter rocketed a shot off a 31-ounce metal bat.
The ball slammed into Steven’s chest, knocking him backward. He clutched his chest, then made a motion to reach for the ball on the ground to pick it up and throw to first base.
But he never made it that far. The ball had struck his chest at the precise millisec-ond between heartbeats, sending him into cardiac arrest, according to his doc-tors. He crumpled to the ground and stopped breath-ing.
His father, a school teacher who had been on the sideline, and a third base coach from the other team ran onto the field. Steven already was turning blue.
Someone yelled, 'Call 911!' Within 90 seconds, a man trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation who had been playing catch with his 9*year-old daughter jumped the fence and started to work on Steven.
Paramedics, who were a quarter-mile away doing a CPR demonstration, arrived within minutes. They placed an oxygen mask over Steven's face and rushed him to a hospital. But the damage had been done; his brain had been without oxy-gen for 15 to 20 minutes.
“Pretty much, he died,” Joseph Domalewski said, wiping away tears. “It was just so fast. The thud, you could hear. When it hit him, that seemed to echo.”
The lawsuit is to be filed in state Superior Court in Passaic County, naming Hillerich & Bradsby Co., maker of the Louisville Slugger TPX Platinum bat.
The suit also will name Little League Baseball and the Sports Authority, which sold the bat. It claims the defendants knew, or should have known, the bat was dangerous for children to use, according to the fami-ly’s attorney.
Hillerich & Bradsby said Domalewski's injury, called commotio cordis, happens more often in baseball from thrown balls than batted ones.
“Our 124-year old, fifth-generation family-owned company never wants to see anyone injured playing base-ball, the game we love,” the company said in a state-ment. “But injuries do occur in sports. While unfortu-nate, these are accidents. We sympathize with Steven and his family, but our bat is not to blame for his injury.”



What is your opinion?

 

I've read this story and truly mourn for his parents and feel real bad for the situation and all but suing the company is taking to the next level. I understand that he has medical issues to take care of but suing the company for making the bat is crazy. It's like a high school football player suing Nike because the cleats he wore were made by Nike and the shoes made him blow his knee out. I have been pitching my whole life and I know when I toe the rubber that there is a possibility that its the last pitch I can throw for the rest of my life, thats the chance you take. I was hit in the mouth from a batter 3 years ago after it hit the ground and took a bad hop and hit me in the mouth causing a lot of problems. It took 8 dental surgeries later and everything turned out ok. But there's not a day that goes by when I look at the plate and see the batter it crosses my mind. I've been hit in about every body part and caught a line drive by a batter in high school that if I didn't catch I probably wouldn't have been able to have kids. When your out there you have to not worry about fear and or what can happen but you have to play the game and just be ready for anything.

Like I said I feel sorry for him and his family and the troubles he has gone through but I hope they won't win the lawsuit. If they do then these companies will get sued over everything and people will start taking advantage of the system and eventually these comapnies will have to start making foam bats so that people can't sue them.

I do believe that changes do need to be made especially starting off at the college level first and foremost. The problem you face is that when a batter squares a ball up with wood or metal that ball is still coming at you like a rocket and the fact that this kid had to be on the receiving is greatly unfortunate but we are very lucky stuff like this doesn't happen more often. Even though pitchers do get hit a lot that more stories don't come out of kids being hurt for life.

 

Life is not fair or safe

Accidents will always happen in life and it is just unfortunate BUT there is no way to stop all accidents. A minor league coach was killed by a batted ball with a wood bat.

 

Yes, that's true, but let me ask this. Would even one of the serious injuries or deaths been avoided by using wood bats?

HS chose to go to metal bats simply because of a cost factor. Two questions come to mind:

1. - Most kids have their own bats, is this a financial issue anymore?

2.- Where does the line cross between financial concerns and safety issues?

 

I've done some research and yes prices have gone up for both metal/wood bats. But I think as a whole the wood bats are considerably cheaper than metal. The thing is wood would have to be replaced a lot because of breaks but if you barrel the ball up you dont have to worry bout the bat breakin.

When a ball is hit off a barrel its going to come at you the same speed because I have faced both metal and wood and had baseballs hit at me and its the same speed. When your 45 feeet or 60 feet away and not including your stride your right on top of the plate it feels like and safety is a big concern because of players getting bigger and stronger at a young age. It's the problems we face but it's the chance you take and you have to live with the consequences of what happens and stop placing blame on companies. The products they make are safe it's just the fact of kids being bigger and stronger that is what makes bats lethal and this problem is at every level.

 

Does anyone else think a 45' mound is too close for a 12 y/o? Most USSSA and Triple Crown tourneys are 50' for 11 & 12 y/o ball. Would that extra 5' make a difference?

 

Never pitched in baseball but did so in slow pitch softball. Trust me, there is a reason after you pitch you start backing up very quick. That ball comes at you like a rocket. Especially when the batter is about 6' 5". Have seen softballs hit as far as baseballs by some of these batters. Played against the Detroit PD team and I do not think they had a player who was under 6'. In NC, it is a tragedy waiting to happen. Guess the metal bat lobby is strong.

 

The reason people love the metal bat is because you can swing it and still not hit the ball good and still ge tit a hit. If your swinging a wood its tough to not barrel it up and get a hit. The metal bat keeps and reasonable game close because you can score a lot of runs quickly and the sound a of the metal bat has that great ping to it. It might take a tragedy for things to change but even though something should be done I dont think it will but time will only tell.

Honestly, the sound a of a wood bat when you barrel the ball up is probably one of the sweetest sounds.

 

Thought that was minor league. This has the first & third base coaches wearing helmets in the minors and majors now. The fact that the injury was not the head but to the neck. And the helmets they are wearing will offer no protection to this type of injury. You are correct. Accidents will always be a part of life and baseball. If not metal then wood. Then when one breaks and a splintered bat goes flying into a player's chest. What then? There are no 100% right answers. It is sad when this happens to any player, coach or fan of the game. Even the fan that is struck by a foul ball or the bat that slips. We can only make people aware that people are throwing a ball around at 0 to 100 mph, that makes contact with a metal or wooden stick that another is swinging, if hit it will send that ball in an unperdictable location and a great speed that if hit will hurt or kill you.

 

It could make a difference but another thing you would have to be concerned about are the pitchers. Considering they are still young and their arms are underdeveloped(which is a great reason not to teach them curveballs(another time and place for that though))it would probably play some concern. But it could also prepare them for the 60' feet mounds also. When a ball is hit at you it doesn;t matter if your 60 or 45, its a rocket coming at you and you just hope the pitcher is quick enough to react to it and catch, deflect it, or get out of the way.