Aluminium vs Wooden Bats

[southsider2k5]

Blood spilled out of Daniel Hannant's right ear. He lay on the infield, his skull fractured in three places, his brain swollen, his life forever changed.

 

Hannant was pitching for Downstate Pittsfield High School in April 2000 when a scorching line drive off an aluminum bat struck the side of his head.

 

That bat, a 33-inch, 28-ounce "Air Attack" model made by Hillerich & Bradsby Co., is at the center of a federal lawsuit Hannant filed this month against the company as well as a larger debate about the safety of aluminum baseball bats. The "Air Attack" was legal at the time of the incident but no longer meets regulations imposed two years ago by the National Federation of High Schools, partly because of safety concerns.

 

Such incidents also have prompted broader calls to ban non-wood bats from baseball, a debate that divides some people within the sport more than the designated hitter.

 

Over the last three decades, amateur baseball teams have almost unanimously traded their wooden bats for metal. It is a decision based partly on performance and partly on price. An aluminum bat can last for years, while wood bats can shatter the first time they strike a ball.

 

But opponents say some aluminum bats hit balls so hard that pitchers standing 60 feet from the plate have no time to react. While manufacturers agree that the ball comes off an aluminum bat with greater velocity, they contend that no data has shown metal bats to be more dangerous than wood.

 

Despite the lack of conclusive data, Massachusetts has banned non-wooden bats from high school tournament games, and more than half of the state's high school leagues require wood bats in the regular season.

 

A study by Amherst College coach Bill Thurston showed that between 1991 and 2001, 10 players were killed by batted balls--eight off aluminum bats and two off wooden bats.

 

Blowing the whistle

 

Daniel Hannant spent 11 days in a coma, and when he came out of it his ears were ringing. Three years later the ringing hasn't stopped, and he said his doctors don't believe it ever will. He also has a 20 percent hearing loss in his right ear.

 

"You learn to live with it," he said.

 

Hannant cannot remember the ball coming toward him or any other detail about the incident. But he has a clearer recollection of how he ended up in U.S. District Court in Chicago, where he filed suit this month seeking $80,000 in medical costs and an undetermined amount of punitive damages.

 

A key moment in the decision to sue came when a family member surfing the Internet found the name of Jack MacKay, one of the designers of the Air Attack bat and a witness against Hillerich & Bradsby in several lawsuits.

 

MacKay quit the firm in 1997 after 11 years, saying company officials had ignored his warnings that the Air Attack was dangerous. He later told Copley News Service that he didn't want his legacy to be that he helped "kill a kid."

 

"We knew who he was, and yes, [MacKay] gave us some information on the bats that was helpful," said Toni Hannant, Daniel's mother.

 

The Hannants said MacKay told them H&B knew the bat's design increased the risk of injury to pitchers. Though Hannant's lawsuit refers to MacKay, Hannant's attorney, Robert A. Chapman, said he never discussed the case with the former consultant, now a wood-bat manufacturer in Texas.

 

"He told us his whole story, how the bat maker wouldn't change, so he quit," Daniel Hannant said of MacKay. "I never met him, but he was encouraging to us. He thought we should go ahead with the lawsuit. Yeah, we trusted what he said."

 

To many involved in the bat debate, MacKay is a lightning rod. But MacKay isn't talking about aluminum bats anymore. H&B sued him in 1998, claiming he misrepresented data. The court agreed and earlier this year found him in contempt of court, ordering him to stop talking about the subject.

 

"At this point, Jack's done altogether talking about aluminum bats," said Joe White, his attorney.

 

Before that ruling, MacKay said, he testified in more than a dozen lawsuits against bat makers, advised legislators who wanted to ban non-wooden bats, and spoke out on how bat manufacturers "fraudulently represented" critical testing information.

 

H&B officials paint MacKay as an opportunist with a history of deceit. The company contends MacKay fabricated data that then was used to produce bats under the Louisville Slugger label.

 

H&B also contends that MacKay falsified his resume, claiming to have an engineering degree and a bachelor's degree in agricultural engineering from Mississippi State University. In fact, records presented in court attacking his credibility show he flunked out.

 

MacKay declined to comment on the specifics of his academic background, saying, "My credentials are what this is all about, isn't it?"

 

His credentials were accepted in the case of Jeremy Brett, an Oklahoma high school pitcher who also was struck by a line drive off an Air Attack bat in 2001. Brett required four hours of surgery, five metal plates, 75 staples and 12 screws to treat his head injuries.

 

MacKay spent a day on the witness stand testifying to the dangers of the bat he designed.

 

"I invented the atom bomb and didn't realize it until we got out there and shot it," he said, according to the Daily Oklahoman. A jury awarded Brett $100,000.

 

The Los Angeles Second District Court of Appeals also cited MacKay's expertise last December when it ruled an injured college pitcher could sue the University of Southern California, the Pacific-10 Conference and the NCAA.

 

Three years ago, MacKay filed a petition with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission asking the agency to come out against non-wooden bats. The petition was denied a year later because of insufficient data.

 

"I know there are theories that aluminum bats are more dangerous," commission spokesman Ken Giles said. "But we couldn't show statistically that balls batted by aluminum bats pose a greater danger than those batted by wood."

 

Is it a weapon?

 

Nonetheless, the NCAA five years ago took some life out of aluminum bats, not because of safety concerns but because of worries about the integrity of the game. Scoring had exploded, culminating with a 21-14 final score in the College World Series title game.

 

High schools followed suit in 2001. According to the new rules, all bats now must be 2 5/8 inches or less in diameter--down 1/8 of an inch--and a bat's length cannot exceed its weight by a factor of more than three. The differential used to be five, as it was with the bat that hit the ball at Daniel Hannant.

 

Thus, a 34-inch bat now must weigh at least 31 ounces, specifications that help limit the ball's speed coming off the bat. That speed, referred to as the BESR--ball exit speed ratio--cannot exceed 97 m.p.h. Every bat that meets those requirements carries a stamp of approval or it cannot be used in college or high school baseball.

 

Many coaches link those changes with a decrease in runs and home runs per game in each of the last four NCAA seasons. Others point to modifications made to a baseball that studies show may have been "juiced."

 

Marty Archer, president of the Louisville Slugger division of Hillerich&Bradsby, stressed that all of his company's bats meet the new requirements.

 

Moving on

 

Daniel Hannant just finished his classes at a community college in Pittsfield.

 

He wants to be a police officer. He enjoys life, still likes baseball and only gets angry about what happened to him when he hears criticism of the lawsuit he filed.

 

"I see it in chat rooms on the Internet or people compare me to the person who sued McDonald's because the coffee was too hot, and that [ticks] me off," Hannant said. "But I can handle it. [Hillerich&Bradsby was] at fault. The bat shouldn't have been used."

 

Others like Dave Keilitz, president of the American Baseball Coaches Association, aren't so sure.

 

"The ball's not coming off the bat with the speed it was four years ago, and that's good," he said. "Still, our association recognizes, as everybody should, that unfortunately there are inherent dangers at the college and high school level. And there's danger whether it's an aluminum or a wood bat."

[elrockinMT]

There's something un-American about using an aluminum bat in a baseball game.

[JTC2784]

Aluminum bats are bad. They're more costly, plus they give players (college players especially) a huge disadvantage once they get to the minor league levels where wooden bats are used. In addition, they're more expensive than wooden ones (though you use more wooden ones throughout the course of a season, the costs of all of those bats usually don't equal aluminum ones), so I don't see why college teams and high school teams don't switch to wood.

[Chisoxfn]

Alumnium bats suck. The only reason highschool uses them is because they are way cheaper or thats my theory.

 

It is much cheaper to buy a few alumnium bats then constantly buy wooden bats.

[Iguana]

They should be outlawed in high school and college.

[elrockinMT]

Aluminum bats are bad.  They're more costly, plus they give players (college players especially) a huge disadvantage once they get to the minor league levels where wooden bats are used.  In addition, they're more expensive than wooden ones (though you use more wooden ones throughout the course of a season, the costs of all of those bats usually don't equal aluminum ones), so I don't see why college teams and high school teams don't switch to wood.

The expesne is why the schools use aluminum. I thought there was some talk of MLB helping, the college level teams anyway, with the cost of the wood bats?

[JTC2784]

The expesne is why the schools use aluminum. I thought there was some talk of MLB helping, the college level teams anyway, with the cost of the wood bats?

My buddy actually did research on which is more expensive... from the studies he did (on the teams in our conference), over a 5-year period, aluminum was actually MORE expensive than wood.

[Be Good]

I think the way we have it now its fine

 

BE GOOD

[Texsox]

I love the "ping" of an aluminum bat. Makes me nostalgic for 1973

 

The switch back to wood won' happen on a team by team basis, the NCAA would have to switch, then state by state at the high school level. All the way the manufacturers will be fighting and lobbying, it's the American way. I was in grade school when aluminum first hit the market and remember hitting my first home run when we switched. I know I batted bettr with aluminum. The early models would only last a few games then flatten out. You could really have some fun after the flattened a bit.

 

Was it Frank T. or Robin V. who played wood as an amatuer so he would be ready for the pros?

[RedPinStripes]

Alumnium bats suck.  The only reason highschool uses them is because they are way cheaper or thats my theory. 

 

It is much cheaper to buy a few alumnium bats then constantly buy wooden bats.

They're not cheaper. A lot of those bats are 200.00 + . They use them because there is much more room for error by the hitter and the ball DOES go much further. I always HATED the sound ! It's just not baseball.

[witesoxfan]

Alumnium bats suck.  The only reason highschool uses them is because they are way cheaper or thats my theory. 

 

It is much cheaper to buy a few alumnium bats then constantly buy wooden bats.

They're not cheaper. A lot of those bats are 200.00 + . They use them because there is much more room for error by the hitter and the ball DOES go much further. I always HATED the sound ! It's just not baseball.

I think what he's talking about is that wooden bats will cost a lot more as the season goes on. You'll break a few wooden bats here and there....and they cost something like $30-$50 or so(I'm guessing here)....you break 7 bats, you are $210-$350 in the hole real f***ing quick.

 

Also, with wooden bats, you really have to buy your own bat, because the more hits a wooden bat takes, the sooner its life of hitting baseballs will end. For a team of 15-20, that is $450-$1000 per team of just bats(of course, the parents would pay for that, but they probably already had paid a large amount of money just to get their kid(s) into baseball). With aluminum bats, the baseball organizers pay $1000 and get 5-8 real good bats....and you probably don't have to buy bats again for a few years, until the ones that you bought originally lose their pop.

 

That's how they save money.

[RedPinStripes]

Wood bats are start at about 20.00 . And HS kids dont break them half as much as the big guys. I used mostly wood bats in hs. I can remember cracking maybe 2 a year if that.

[witesoxfan]

Wood bats are start at about 20.00 . And HS kids dont break them half as much as the big guys. I used mostly wood bats in hs. I can remember cracking maybe 2 a year if that.

What about the rest of the players though? If they use wooden bats, that'd cost a s***load of money from everyone.

 

Maybe $40-$60 isn't that bad of a price range.....but aluminum bats do last a couple years before they lose their pop.

 

At this point in my life....aluminum bats are all I have. However, I'm not stupid enough to pay $200-$300 for one goddamn bat. That's insane.

[Texsox]

The more I think about the lawsuit the more unfair to the manufacturer this seems. I sympathize with the guy that got hit but why not sue the manufacturer of the ball? Or his parents for not giving him faster reflexes?

 

The bat was legal at the time. We want our equipment to give us every advantage within the rules. Think golf, using this analogy if I shank a 1950s persimmon wood and hit a guy he wouldn't sue, if I used a Calloway ERC I could be sued!? Sorry, the bat was legal you took the risk when you play.

[JTC2784]

The more I think about the lawsuit the more unfair to the manufacturer this seems. I sympathize with the guy that got hit but why not sue the manufacturer of the ball? Or his parents for not giving him faster reflexes?

 

The bat was legal at the time. We want our equipment to give us every advantage within the rules. Think golf, using this analogy if I shank a 1950s persimmon wood and hit a guy he wouldn't sue, if I used a Calloway ERC I could be sued!? Sorry, the bat was legal you took the risk when you play.

Amen to that. I hate this whole "it's not my fault so it has to be your fault" crap that America has adopted. There ARE things called accidents that are unavoidable. Suck it up.