Metal vs. Wood bats

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Metal Bats Are an Issue of Life and Death

 

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By IRA BERKOW

Published: July 16, 2006

 

On a July night three years ago, a line drive rocketed off a metal bat and smashed into the left temple of Brandon Patch, an 18-year-old American Legion pitcher in Montana. Within hours, he was dead.

 

In April 2005, a line drive off a metal bat slammed into the temple of Bill Kalant, a 16-year-old high school pitcher in suburban Chicago. The ball traveled “with laserlike speed,” said Skip Sullivan, Kalant’s coach at Oak Lawn High School. Kalant was rushed to a hospital adjoining the field, where an emergency-room doctor told his parents, “He is on the cliff of death.” He made it through after being in a coma for two weeks and having brain surgery. He has had to learn how to brush his teeth again, how to tie his shoes again, how to walk again.

 

At a Police Athletic League game last month in Wayne, N.J., a line drive off a metal bat struck the chest of Steven Domalewski, 12, knocking him down and stopping his heart for a few minutes. He was revived on the field and taken to a hospital, where he was put in a medically induced coma, placed on a feeding tube and hooked to electrodes to stimulate his brain. He is still in a coma.

 

Brandon Patch lived with his parents, Duane and Deb, in Miles City, Mont., a small cowboy town where he played for a team called the Mavericks. The Patches run a Web site dedicated to Brandon, forever11.com, and are part of a national crusade to eliminate aluminum bats in amateur baseball in favor of wood bats, which they and many others consider to be less dangerous. They have, however, met with stiff resistance from bat manufacturers and officials of amateur leagues.

 

At home in Oak Lawn, Ill., Tony Kalant, Bill’s father, said he believed that his son would not have sustained his life-threatening injury if a wood bat had been used. “He would have reacted quicker,” Kalant said. “Like this, the ball was hit so hard and came so fast, he didn’t have a chance.”

 

In Trenton, Assemblyman Patrick J. Diegnan Jr., a Democrat from Middlesex County, introduced a bill last month to prohibit the use of metal bats in youth and high school baseball leagues. “It’s time to do away with the hollow ping and the increased risk of injury aluminum bats brought to New Jersey ballfields,” Diegnan said in a statement. He added that a ball traveled about 20 miles an hour faster off a metal bat than off a wood bat because of what is generally referred to as the “trampoline effect.”

 

The conflict over the use of metal versus wood began almost from the inception of the use of aluminum bats in the early 1970’s to cut the cost of replacing broken wood bats. The controversy took an odd turn last month: The Mavericks forfeited four games as part of a home-and-away series with the Bozeman Bucks of their Eastern Montana Class AA American Legion conference because Bozeman refused to play with wood.

 

“Ever since Brandon’s death, we only play games with wood bats, because it’s safer — I feel there’s no question about that — and out of respect for Brandon and his parents,” said Matt Phillips, the Mavericks’ coach.

 

He was speaking in the clubhouse at Denton Field, the Mavericks’ home ballpark. The clubhouse, named Patch’s Corner, was built with donations from the community and from supporters around the country. A memorial stone and a photo of the left-handed Patch following through on a pitch are at the entrance.

 

The other five teams in the conference, as well as all other American Legion teams in the state, play with aluminum bats when Miles City is not involved. They have respected the Miles City position in games against the Mavericks. In the past two years, in the eight games Bozeman and Miles City played, Bozeman used wood bats. Bozeman is again at the top end of the league standings, Miles City at the lower rung.

 

“At the conference meeting in December, all the teams, including Bozeman, agreed again to play us only with wood bats,” Phillips said. “Then on Friday, three days before we were supposed to play them, Mitch Messer, their coach, calls and says they have decided to play with aluminum bats. I said we aren’t going to play with aluminum bats and that we’d have to forfeit the games. He said: ‘We’re a metal-bat team, and we don’t want to do anything to jeopardize our season. I mean no disrespect to your team or to Brandon Patch’s family, but that’s our decision.’ ”

 

Deb Patch said: “It really is a slap in our face. It totally is.”

 

Her husband, Duane, growing emotional, said, “The reason we are trying to get metal bats out of baseball is that we don’t want any parent to go through what my wife and I went through on that July 25.”

 

Messer did not return several telephone calls seeking comment.

 

“Mitch is a first-year coach with us, and it was generally decided to go this route,” said Ron Edwards, a spokesman for the Bozeman Bucks’ board of directors. “Every one of the other 5,500 Legion teams in the country play with metal bats. We decided to go with the majority.”

 

But a handful of Legion teams around the country play with only wood bats, and the Bozeman decision drew heated responses.

 

Andrew Hinkelman, a sports columnist for The Bozeman Daily Chronicle, wrote, “After almost three years of every Miles City opponent abiding by the Mavericks’ request to not use aluminum bats, the Bucks became the first team to dishonor themselves by insisting that metal is better.” He added that the Bucks’ decision was “a disheartening display of classless, unsportsmanlike behavior that is in violation of the spirit of athletics.”

 

Josh Samuelson, the sports editor of The Miles City Star, wrote a column with similar sentiments regarding Bozeman and its coach. He received an e-mail message from Kay Bugger, the mother of a current Bucks player and of another player who was on the team in 2003. She gave permission by telephone for her message to be published again: “Your article is right on the money, and most of the parents in Bozeman agree with you!”

 

She added, “Messer is showing complete disrespect for the situation.”

 

A year ago, the Patches were among those who petitioned the Montana Legislature to ban aluminum bats. The ban was rejected in a close decision, but Gov. Brian Schweitzer issued a statement urging teams to take up wood bats. “We have a responsibility to protect our young people in their sports endeavors,” he said.

 

Some campaigns have succeeded. Next year, all North Dakota high school games will be played with wood bats. A number of other high school, amateur and college conferences, including the New York Collegiate Baseball League and the Great Lakes Valley Conference, have gone back to wood. The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association briefly banned metal bats for high school playoff games, but the rule was later abandoned. The professional minor and major leagues use wood bats.

 

Manufacturers take the position that, given the some 20 million baseball players in the United States, metal bats do not cause any more injuries than wood bats. Others, like Jim Quinlan, the national program coordinator for American Legion Baseball, say that wood bats can also be dangerous. One example he used was of a teenager in Utah who was killed by a ball off a wood bat in batting practice.

 

Last month, Erik Davis, a Stanford junior, was pitching in the high-end amateur Cape Cod League, which uses wood bats. Davis was hit in the face with a batted ball. He had reconstructive surgery to repair damage to his right eye.

 

Between 1991 and 2001, 17 players were killed by batted balls, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Eight involved metal bats and two involved wood bats. In seven instances, the kind of bat was not documented.

 

Steve Keener, the president and chief executive of Little League International, which uses metal bats, said that injuries from batted balls had decreased over the years. He said the ratio of weight to length in youth bats had been adjusted so that the velocity of a ball from the bat was about equivalent to that of a wood bat. Similar bats are used in some other amateur settings.

 

In 2001, a proposal before the New York City Council to ban metal bats in youth leagues failed to pass. That was after testimony in the Youth Services Committee by Jack MacKay Jr., a former metal bat engineer for Hillerich & Bradsby, which makes Louisville Slugger bats. He told the committee that metal bats posed “unnecessary danger.”

 

Freddy Ricci, a Staten Island resident whose 14-year-old son Anthony’s teeth were knocked out by a line drive in 2001, told the committee that nothing could compare to “sitting in an emergency room, with your son, with teeth getting knocked out, blood drenched to his underwear.” He added, “So all of the statistics that you have, they don’t mean a thing to me.”

 

With other testimony from bat companies, the committee decided that metal bats did not pose any greater danger than wood bats.

 

Aluminum bats are lighter to swing than wood ones, and the ball flies off faster. The so-called sweet spot, in the meat of the barrel, is greater because the bat is more hollow. The bat manufacturer Easton advertises its new Stealth bat with technology that encourages “the most efficient energy transfer from handle to barrel for maximum ‘whip’ for a quicker bat and more power through the hitting zone,” according to the company’s Web site. The bat sells for $299. Wood bats sell for around $50.

 

Young players generally seem to prefer hitting with metal bats. “There’s so much more pop to them,” said Pat Regan, shortstop for the Mavericks and the only current player who had been a teammate of Brandon Patch. “You hit longer balls. If you hit the ball on the handle with a wood bat, it’s a groundout to short. If you hit it on the handle with a metal, it can be a double. But metal bats should be outlawed. It puts lives in danger.”

 

Scott Kvernum of Williston, N.D., was in the stands at Denton Field as his son’s team played recently against Miles City.

 

“We’re a home-run-hitting team with metal bats, but with the wood bats we don’t have nearly the same pop,” he said. “It takes a big, strong man to poke one out with a wood bat. That’s why I’d like to see us playing here with metal bats.”

 

His son, Devin, is a catcher. How would he feel if his son were a pitcher? “With metal bats?” he said. “Oh God, I’d be leery.”

 

 

Any thoughts on this?

[Gregory Pratt]

I've been swinging a wooden bat in my spare time for years now. Actually, it's to the point where I have trouble swinging an aluminum bat. I went out with SF1 and SoxAce from this site awhile back and just felt uncomfortable with the lighter bat, and I popped everything straight up or missed completely.

 

I didn't spend much time on my HS team for personal reasons and clashes with management (call me Carl), but I play baseball all the time on weekends with friends, and in those events, I use wooden bats. Even when we organize bats, we like to use wood, partly because I insist on it. I've always been derisive toward aluminum bats.

 

I don't know if they should be banned from high school play and College. I think that they probably should, both because it's easier to evaluate a player's TRUE strengths if they're not swinging something that turns everything into a smash, and because it's safer. But I know that a lot of kids would, well, suck if they had to use wooden bats.

 

So, I think they should be banned from HS and College. I'll stop footsying and say that unequivocally.

[SoxFan1]

I got hit with a line drive in the foot off an aluminum bat while pitching and another of my teammates got hit with a liner off the shoulder via aluminium bats...with that said, we both agree that they should be kept in HS and College.

[jackie hayes]

Isn't there an issue about costs? While the metal bats are more expensive, they last forever. I think, especially for college teams, wooden bats would end up being more expensive. Iirc, there was some discussion a while ago about MLB possibly subsidizing wooden bats for college/jc programs...

 

Aside from that, and some kids getting in a huff about not hitting as many hrs, there's really no reason not to go to wood bats.

[Gregory Pratt]

I got hit with a line drive in the foot off an aluminum bat while pitching and another of my teammates got hit with a liner off the shoulder via aluminium bats...with that said, we both agree that they should be kept in HS and College.

 

That's because you can't swing a wooden bat.

[Sonik22]

Back in about 6th grade i was pitching in a league game and the kid i was pitching against on the other team was my friend. I threw a fastball and he lined it straight at me it hit my collar bone and bounced up and hit me in the jaw. It left a seam inprint on my skin. That sucked.

[Phuck the Cubs]

I like the metal bats. I was able to break up a kids perfect game w/ a bunt when I was in 7th grade. I managed to push the bunt thru the infield, something I prolly wouldn't have been able to do w/ a wood bat.

[Gregory Pratt]

I like the metal bats. I was able to break up a kids perfect game w/ a bunt when I was in 7th grade. I managed to push the bunt thru the infield, something I prolly wouldn't have been able to do w/ a wood bat.

 

I luuuv it when you analyze.

[SoxFanForever]

I like the metal bats. I was able to break up a kids perfect game w/ a bunt when I was in 7th grade. I managed to push the bunt thru the infield, something I prolly wouldn't have been able to do w/ a wood bat.

Maybe you should show Uribe your technique.

[chisoxdavid]

I hit a line drive straight at a pitchers face in HS, and man did that leave me not wanting to use metal bats. My coach would not let me use a wood bat so I stuck with the aluminum, now I play in a baseball league that uses mostly metal bats and thank god nothing bad has happend

[Phuck the Cubs]

I luuuv it when you analyze.

 

 

Maybe you should show Uribe your technique.

I just got lucky. The only reason I did it is b/c I hated the kid and I wanted to rub it in his face that I broke up hi perfect game. He went after me the next day in school, and I used a locker to break his arm, so it was all good.

[Gregory Pratt]

I just got lucky. The only reason I did it is b/c I hated the kid and I wanted to rub it in his face that I broke up hi perfect game. He went after me the next day in school, and I used a locker to break his arm, so it was all good.