Legislate HS to use wood bats?

flotg:

I was making the case about hs players being smaller than college players. I said nothing about players using wood bats 30 years ago or the physical size of players 30 years ago. I'm sure the baseball was competative in the past but i would have to say it has gotten better with the help of aluminum bats along with countless other factors. Personally I love that PING from a well hit ball while either sitting in the stands or listening on the radio to the local games.

 

Cost not an issue

First of all I dont see the cost of bats as an issue. Any decent aluminum bat is going to run you around 250 to 300. I see a ton of exo bats and dynastys being used by everyone we play I dont see any of those cheap 150 bats. And maybe Im crazy but who uses the same metal bat for more than a year? Not if you play in the summer and or fall. You can get a good quality wood bat for 50 or 60 bucks and you can also get a real good composite for around 100 bucks. Kids have gloves that cost 200 bucks cleats that cost 100 bucks not to mention batting gloves under armor etc etc. The cost issue does not wash with me. It would definitely be cheaper for me as a dad if we went back to wood.

The game was meant to be played with wood. Metal bats allow a kid to do alot of things wrong at the plate and still have sucess. Hence they tend to not learn. When you hook around an outside fastball with an aluminum bat and get a base hit its hard to get it in that kids head that he should have stayed back and hit it deeper in the zone backside. If he was hitting with wood and he hooked around that same pitch he would break his bat or hit a weak dribbler and gotten out. Learning to stay inside the ball especially on inside pitches. How many time have we all seen a kid get fisted with a metal bat only to see the ball bloop over the ss head for a base hit. Do that with wood and your looking for a new bat on your way back to the dugout. What saves alot of these kids is the fact that the velocity they face at the HS level most of the time allows them to have sucess with poor hitting mechanics because they are swinging a metal bat. If you want to find the flaws in a swing hit with wood. If you want to become a better hitter hit with wood.

Wood bat games last around 1-45 minutes to 2 hours. There are less pitches thrown. Players have to learn how to move runners with the bunt and hitting behind runners. Players learn to controll the bat and stay inside the ball. The metal bat hurts players ability to become good hitters. It is also very unfair to pitchers in my opinion. The game was designed to be played with wood. Metal bats change the game. Ill tell you what if a kid knew that if he kept hooking around the outside pitch his metal bat would break and he would have to get dad to buy him another one he would start thinking hard about staying back and working backside. But that is not going to happen because there is no penalty other than getting out once in awhile. Wood bat games are a blast because they bring into account all that is great about the game. Moving runners by hitting behind that runner at second base with no outs. Bunting guys over. Every run is a premium. Learning to maximize your scoring opportunities. Hitting your cut off man becomes even more important. Bunt defense is critical. What we have now to a certain degree is gorilla ball. And as far as kids being able to handle the wood it aint the same wood today they we swung in the 70's folks. These wood bats today are light years ahead. They have -3 wood bats that are thin handled and very high quality wood. The ones I used you could barely put your fingers around the handles. You had to sand them down just to get a grip on them. The wood grain was pitifull. Just my opinion I would love to see the wood bat replace the nuclear metal bats.

 

wood vs aluminum cost

I can't speak for great hitters, etc... wood makes you better than aluminum or anything like that, but I can say as for the cost effectiveness, I have had a fall baseball team for the last 2 years that played with wood. Most of these kids are decent ballplayers, but not great. Most of these kids can't afford to buy new wood bats everytime they break, so I did some research and asked some college coaches I knew and they said buy Baum bats, they last forever. They were 170. each, and after 2 years and pretty much every kid using them in every at bat for every swing, I still have them both and they are still in 1 piece and used. And you can rest assured there wasn't alot of balls hit on the sweet spot.

I am not implying these bats are better than others, just that there are bats out there that will do last a long time and might be very cost effective in the wood vs. metal debate.

 

not sure if breaking wood bats would make you a better hitter. i think you will need quality hitting instruction for that. poor hitters (which can be numerous at the hs level) may cause a safety hazard for players fans and coaches. big splenters flying. those -3 bats can't be very strong and will break alot easier with a sub-par hitter at the plate. all this is why i would like to see it at the college level. you have better players with more experience at the plate who are generally playing for a good reason not just to fill a roster.

 

At what point does the safety factor override the cost involved? And don't be surprised when you see the new Super-Duper-Special Secret-Can't Miss- Extended Sweet Spot Diablo Bat that retails for $1200...that guarantees to turn a 90lb weakling into the next Albert Pujols

To be honest, the only way I can see HS's going back to wood bats would involve a class action suit from a parent that lost a son due to these nuclear bats or some type of government action initiating it.

The other problem I have with metal bats is what Coach27 referred to as "gorilla ball". It cheapens the game in more ways than one

 

My kids would dred the thought of playing in a wood bat tournament. But after the tournament was over, they absolutely loved it.

Big teams were turned into average teams, and proven beatable.
WOOD BATS- the great equalizer.

If you can play, you can play with wood.


I am glad my son does not pitch. The thought of him facing some of the high school gorillas with metal bats, scares me.

 

I think that colleges need to make the change first, then let it trickle down to the HS level. After all, why play in HS with wood only to use aluminum in college? Right now, unless you turn out to be a pro player, what would be the use of playing with wood? I understand guys saying you learn to hit better, move runners, bunt, etc., but in my opinion If you're old enough and good enough to make a HS team you should already know how to do these things, and can do them with whatever stick is in your hands. Just my humble .02.

 

great post blademan

 

coach 27
the composite cxn from easton can be had at around $170, and i think thats a fairly nice aluminum bat. obviously we each coach very different players. in fact when i first got here kids didn't even own their own bats, the team provided them. luckily we are slowly but surely getting away from that. it blew my mind that baseball players didn't own their own bat. but i digress

its important to remember that not everyone plays summer ball, not everyone plays travel ball. there are plenty of kids that play hs baseball from feb to may (and because of that we don't play in june much). and if you only use a particular bat in game action and not everyone uses it, it can definitely go a season or two. and if we use wood and a kid isn't an experienced hitter they are going to break bats. that same inexperienced hitter is not going to break that aluminum bat. so therefore i see aluminum as a cheaper option.

i agree with you that the game was ment to be played with wood. i'm a purist at heart. and nothing scares me more than when a kid gets a p-rod hit back at them off of one of these nasa quality bats. but i just see wood as a more expensive option, dollar for dollar, at the high school level where every kid isn't the best of the best. i think at the collegiate level, and maybe even the american legion level wood bats may be a more legitamate option. not sure how to spell legitamate.

 

Good Post Legion46

Good post Legion46 you make some good points. I really would like to hear from some current HS players on this topic.