Wood bats vs Aluminum

There seems to be an equal amount of supporters on both sides of the fence....Discuss

To address the safety concerns, this article from the American Journal of Medicine reports there have been 41 catastrophic injuries in the past 20 years....10 of which resulted in fatalities.

http://ajsm.highwire.org/cgi/content/abstract/32/5/1189

 

I'm firmly in the wood bat corner. That probably is not much of a surprise. I was surprised however to see that some college conferences in the northeast use wood. I'll take the "crack" over the "ping" any day!

 

Back to Wood

If statistics show, as I believe they probably do, that players are at greater risk of injury playing with aluminum bats, then we need to go back to wood. Aluminum is not worth the risk of one injury. About five years ago, I witnessed a high school pitcher's low 80's fastball hit him flush in the nose from a line drive off an aluminum bat. He didn't have time to react, it happened so quickly. A very sickening incident that ended in the pitcher having reconstructive surgery.

 

The purest will always want wood. The casual fan who wants high scoring games will want metal. Don't be surprised (since this forum attracts die-hard fans of the game) if the vote here is over-whelmingly in support of wood.

Personally, Wood is the only way to go. Metal was introduced as a cost-savings measure initially. The early metal bats did not have the pop that is induced by modern technology, which is making a joke of offense in HS/College.

Only down-side. Wood does break (frequently), so there would be a cost associated with a switch back to wood that would have to be born by either the HS or the Booster Club of the HS (shouldn't insist that the players provide their own bats ... would squeeze some out of the game). In Mecklenburg County, there wouldn't be any way that the school system would pay for the switch. Over then next few years, they will probably drop monitary support for all HS athletics (other than facilities).

Let metal bats stay down in the youth leagues ... but switch to wood in HS and beyond.

 

The Super Bat...it's around the corner

http://www.exploratorium.edu/baseball/tools_5.html

 

....... I like wood

 

Current Player's Standpoint

as a currently player (and primarily a pitcher) I agree that wood is better. I love wooden bats, on our legion team in Caldwell we use wood for batting practice, and I know of some guys that could easily use them in games. the feel is better and teaches you to hit the ball solid regardless of where it is pitches, as u cant get as lucky as u do with metal where contact at all and launch the ball....and as far as cost....you order in bulk, you can get almost 7 high quality wooden bats for the price of one of today's leading metal bats...and comebackers off of metal are really scary as shared in another story above...i took a line drive off of my shin my sophmore year that has left permanent problems and a shin that is very apt to shin splints.....just my perspective though...but bring back tha wood

 

As the father of a college pitcher, I'm sick to death of cheap hits off the handles of metal bats...not to mention the danger of the higher exit velocity generated by metal...higher scores...inflated batting averages and E.R.A's.

At the collegiate level, it's not baseball as it was meant to be played. It speaks volumes that the best summer leagues available to college players use wood.

 

They describe these super bats as a ball jumping off a trampoline. That's not baseball....that's cheating. Can you imagine basketball games with a trampoline under the basket!

If colleges went to the wood bat...everyone else would follow. Including better scouting of hitters at the HS level. It's not a coincidence that the hitters in the Cape Cod league average 100 points below their college batting average.

It all changed with that commercial " Chicks dig the long ball "

 

I think bat manufacturers should be asked to design a metal bat that has the same characteristics of a wooden bat. That way they have the benefits of metal (won't break) and benefits of wood (slower exit velocity, smaller sweet spot, etc.). If they can make metal bats that have trampoline effects they can make metal bats that play like wooden bats. All we need is High School and College governing bodies to approve these bats for use and the manufacturers would start making them.