Legislate HS to use wood bats?

There is legislation is some states to force HS to use wood bats. What is your opinion?

 

May be a good concept for college but not the high school level

 

Why would it not be a good concept?

 

some reasons are physical size of the players in hs baseball are smaller than what you would see in college therefore they are not as strong and could not generate comparable bat speeds as lighter weight aluminum bats. this starts the cascade effect. examples: less homeruns, doubles, triples, possibly less hits in general. defense may suffer from balls coming to them slower and not having to be ready to field that blistering ball up the middle as often. can make spectacular plays more routine. over all a lower scoring less interesting game at this level of play.

 

asterisks in all the records

 

Guys would learn to hit the right way. I can't tell you how often I hear a kid refered to as an aluminum bat hitter. Hitters would adjust and so would the game. I would be all for it.

 

So, you're saying that kids in HS, say 30 years ago, were bigger and stronger than they are now? I would respectfully disagree. I would suggest there's not much difference in size between the players of old and our kids today. They played w/wood in the 70's and played some pretty darn good baseball.

Wood teaches the game and shows the stronger players. Anyone (or almost anyone) can get a 2B, 3B, or HR with aluminum. When you can hit one of those w/a woody - well that speaks for itself.

I'm all for it - who do we call????

 

my only question..... who is going to pay for ALL the wooden bats?? very expensive for a high school.

 

not ready

i would definitely be opposed to being forced to use wood. first of all the cost issues. now i do realize that there are some bats that cost close to $400. but you can get a good aluminum bat for $170- $200. that bat can last you two or three seasons, depending upon only using it in games etc. a wood bat may only last an at bat. wood bats will just cost more.

everybody breaks wood bats, even good hitters. how many aluminum bats do you see break each year? three maybe four?

now we use wood bats all fall and winter during our skill development. i'll normally buy a 6 pack of blem maple bats for about 90 bucks and maybe one or two make it through to the next season. i have had a lot of success with louisville's composite wood bats, but i haven't really seen much difference in the maple bats outlasting the ash bats.

 

the fact is that 30 years ago kids were the same size and everything they are now but back then they had used wood bats from the time they started playing baseball and the problem we have today is that kids have been using aluminum all there lifeand have a tought time adjusting to wooden bats is because they have weak hands. Anyone can swing an aluminum bat but to swing a wood bat with some authority you need to have strong hands and i would throw in wrist and forearms but everyone knows that bat speed is generated by having strong forearms and well people forget to strengthen the hands or grip thats the problem with kids today with wooden bats