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Wood bats versus aluminum bats

By Warren Mayes

Everyone wants athletes in baseball and softball to have fun, enjoy the game and avoid injuries, but several local officials and coaches involved said outlawing metal bats will not solve the problem.

Manchester Athletic Association President Robert Goad said that it is an issue that has been discussed extensively on the local level.

“We use metal bats,” Goad said. “You hardly ever see a wooden bat anymore. We know metal bats last longer. They can do bad. The new metal bats they’re coming out with these days, it’s phenomenal how hard you can hit a ball with them. We had a talk about this about a year ago. I don’t think there was a conclusion reached.”

Ever since their introduction in the early 1970s, aluminum bats have dominated the youth and amateur adult baseball and softball markets. Every year, new designs and models are introduced and each one supposedly is better than previous models. Each new bat is touted to have a wider sweet spot, more power, better feel and higher performance.

Almost everyone who has ever used an aluminum bat believes that they perform better than wooden bats. It is pretty much an accepted fact that balls come off metal bats faster than they do for wooden bats. Because the barrel of an aluminum bat is hollow, the distribution of mass along the length of the bat is considerably different than it is for a solid wood bat.

In addition, kids want to excel on the field. Metal bats help in that regard and that is why they are used, Goad said.

“It’s an issue of metal bats lasting longer, and the other factor is kids perform better with a metal bat,” Goad said.

Scott Brown, Christian Brothers College’s (CBC) athletic director and baseball coach, said he does not see metal bats going away.

"It's about cost,” Brown said. “Like most schools, most kids buy their own bats. I haven't bought bats for the school in many years. It's kids wanting to use them. They can use them in the summer with the teams they play on."

It is also about performance, Brown said. Metal bats out-perform wooden bats by far.

"With the wood bat, the stuff you can buy in the stores, the quality has gone down," Brown said. "The best wood goes to the major leagues and the next-best wood goes to the minor leagues, then to some colleges that use wooden bats. Then you get down to the stuff in the stores. Those things break fairly easily. I used to umpire quite a bit. One league I umped at was the Central Illinois Collegiate League when there was a team in Alton. They used wood bats. They went to composite wood bats. Those don't break."

However, Brown said he does not see high schools going to them.

"I don't see a whole lot of change in the near future," Brown said. "They've done a good job toning the metal bats down. They're not near as dangerous anymore. They've done a lot to tone down how fast the ball comes off the bat."

In recent years the metal versus wood issue has become quite a controversial topic. Claims that higher batted ball speeds put pitchers and infielders at higher risk for injury have led to calls for restrictions on bat performance. At times, the controversy regarding metal versus wooden bats has become quite heated, resulting in threats of lawsuits between bat manufacturers, safety watch organizations and sports regulatory groups.

A recent example in the news is a Wayne, N.J., couple, whose son was struck in the chest with a line drive. They are planning to sue the maker of a metal baseball bat that was used in the game. Two years ago, Steven Domalewski was pitching when the ball slammed into his chest and stopped his heart. He was resuscitated but now has brain damage and is severely disabled.

The family contends that metal baseball bats are inherently unsafe for youth games because the ball comes off them much faster than from wooden bats. The lawsuit also will be filed against Little League Baseball and a sporting goods chain that sold the bat. An attorney said Domalewski will need millions of dollars worth of medical care for the rest of his life. The bat maker said that while it sympathizes with Domalewski and his family, the bat is not to blame for the injury.

Despite that incident, Ken Eckardt, the longtime American Legion general manager of Ballwin Post 611, said he thinks the issue is much ado about nothing.

“I think that it’s a dramatically overstated problem,” Eckardt said. “The next issue people are more concerned about is maple wood bats because they splinter and it’s like an artillery round. I think the aluminum bats are safe. I’m not concerned. A lot of that stuff is overkill. Aluminum bats work fine and coaches and players protect themselves. Regulating is not the answer. You need to be alert and play the game. That may not be a popular opinion, but I’m comfortable with it.”

However, this year Eckardt said he is “making the coaches on the sidelines” wear helmets. Last year’s memory of St. Louis’ Juan Encarnacion getting drilled in the face on a sliced foul ball while in the on-deck circle is one reason Eckardt is making the move.

“We do take all precautions, but this is still baseball,” Eckardt said.

St. Peters Athletic Association President John Ryan, who also doubles as an umpire, said his group also tries to make the games as safe as possible for everyone.

"I think there are a number of things we've done to make our leagues safer," Ryan said. "We require anybody who's coaching first or third to wear a helmet. All of them are safety approved, and we think that helps."

Goad said manufacturers have started rating bats with a bat performance index. They rate them differently for softball and baseball.

“Say if a ball comes in 100 miles an hour, it’s not supposed to come off the bat faster than 115 miles an hour,” Goad said. “We were concerned about the length-to-weight ratio and we’ve always gone by that until about a year ago. The county changed their rules a year ago. We want to be as safe as possible.”

Ryan said his association has a remedy of sorts for the ball coming off the bat so fast that the pitcher cannot react.

"In baseball, we've moved pitching distances back to improve reactions from batters," Ryan said. "In higher levels, our Juvenile 1 division, which is eighth grade, that's the first division you can wear spikes. We limit the size of the bat at that division as well. Hopefully you can't swing as hard at (that) point to hit it so hard that you can hurt someone."

It is not just bats, either.

Some safety experts advise the use of baseball helmets with face masks for high school infielders. Ohio researcher Christy Collins’ vision for the future of baseball can be glimpsed through the polycarbonate bars of a face mask. She has examined data from dozens of high school teams and concluded that the best way to reduce serious injuries on the diamond would be to require that all infielders, from pitchers to shortstops, wear helmets and face protection.

Collins’ suggestion was published recently in the journal “Pediatrics.” If implemented, it would mean a huge change in the game’s gear. Few think the idea will come to pass soon, if ever, but it has become part of a larger discussion about safety in America’s pastime where a long-held culture of toughness is slowly giving way to more cautious attitudes.

“I am aware of facemasks for softball but not baseball,” Goad said. “I’ve heard that will be here within a year or so. It will be pretty much across the board. I see more and more girls using them.”

Still, baseball is among the safest high school sports, with a total injury rate well below that of football and even soccer. But when it comes to serious harm, a 2000 study showed that it trails only wrestling for injuries that keep players sidelined for a week or more.

As part of a wider survey on sports injuries, Collins, a researcher at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, looked at two seasons of high school trainers’ reports. She found that extreme injuries - fractures, concussions and dental damage - were more likely to afflict players who had been hit by a batted ball.

“It can be pretty costly to treat head and face injuries as well as having an impact on the player - keeping them out of play, changing their outlook on sports,” Collins said. “Sports are one of the major ways kids can have a physically fit and healthy lifestyle. If a player sustains an injury, they may quit in the long term, and we definitely don’t want that to happen.”

Though some have tried curbing those injuries by limiting the size of bats or allowing only wooden ones, Collins said the best defense would be for all infielders to sport helmets and face shields, or at least mouth guards and protective eyewear. She speculated that the same advice would benefit younger athletes who play on smaller fields and whose reflexes are not as sharp.

Little League Baseball, whose rules govern more than 2 million players in the United States, does not require any of the equipment Collins encourages, though the group said knee and ankle injuries prompted it to switch this year to “safety bases,” which dislodge when players slide into them.

Goad said the safety bases are not used in St. Louis County. They do use a double base at first base to prevent collisions.

“We don’t use them here, but I am aware of them,” Goad said about the safety bases. “We use double base at first where one is orange and one is white and the runner goes to one and the fielder to another. That way we don’t have collisions at first.”

Ryan said his association does have "safety bases for girls’ softball."

Fast-pitch softball has upgraded its safety equipment in recent years, requiring batters to wear helmets with masks after players too often fouled rising pitches off their faces.

Kelly McKeown, spokeswoman for the Amateur Softball Association, said the Oklahoma City-based organization has not considered mandating masks for infielders, but it seems to be catching on anyway.

Collins said further study is needed to understand why most players seem hesitant to adopt the gear, while Ryan said he has seen more and more facemasks on players.

"I notice that most parents (are) providing facemasks," Ryan said. "We don't require it, but a lot of parents are putting them on. And that's fine. I bought one for my daughter. She thought it looked good and had to have it."

Another area where Goad said local associations might try to prevent injuries is in the on-deck circles and where the next batter stands.

“We don’t want something where a ball is coming off a bat and hurting somebody,” Goad said. “In Oklahoma, they have a rule where a kid stands in the opposite on-deck circle from where the hitter is batting. Like if a kid is hitting right-handed, the next hitter will stand in the on-deck circle behind him. We don’t do that here, but it’s something we might consider in the future.”

In St. Peters, officials are prepared for potential injuries.

"All of our concessions stands have first-aid kits," Ryan said. "We have bags of ice. Also, in our rules that we provide to parents and coaches, we're up front with player behavior. We don't have a mandatory slide rule but if we see inappropriate contact, we eject the player. We allow nothing intentional. We react right away."

Overall, Ryan said he believes youth sports are as safe as possible.

"Things could happen, and no one wants to see anyone get hurt," Ryan said. "But to say there's no risk at all is kind of crazy. Like we have a lightning rule. If we see any, we immediately suspend the game. We really opt on the side of safety for the kids. All the rules are geared toward the safety of the kids."

Brown said they follow the same types of guidelines.

“Our trainer says that baseball is one of the safer sports," Brown said. "I've been doing high school baseball for 18 years and I've had very few significant injuries. I understand trying to do things for safety, but it doesn't mean you have to do something when you look into it. Baseball is pretty safe. There's always going to be injuries. It's still a sport and still contact is involved. If you go to wood bats, a piece of wood can fly off. Just because you do something doesn't mean it will eliminate injuries.”