Banning metal bats?

The NJ State Legislature already has introduced the first mandatory steroid testing program for high school athletes. Next on the agenda is bat safety...a bill introduced Thursday to ban metal bats and mandate the use of wood bats in all youth and high school leagues.

http://www.northjersey.com/page.php...FeXk2OTUyMDEwJnlyaXJ5N2Y3MTdmN3ZxZWVFRXl5Mg==

I'm all for this. I hate metal-bat ball.

 

Wow for once we agree. It should be a federal law. Metal bats the way they are made today are very dangerous specialy at youth level. They are making double core bats that look the same as the basic ones but ball comes off them like they are shot out of a cannon. Most young kids are not quick enough to handle ball.

I just hope that Al Gore does not gum it up by saying that baseball will be killing trees

 

I am glad at least someone is working on this before a pitcher gets killed by taking a line drive off the head.

 

Its already happened.

 

Oh, gees, just read the article.
That's awful, I hope the kid makes it.

 

I'm with you all here. Ban the bat.

Maybe someone with a little more baseball knowledge than me can explain why metal bats were first adopted, other than for the obvious reason of their lighter weight? Wouldn't it make sense to use the same equipment, relatively speaking, that's used in the pros?

 

I think this is the rare issue that everyone on SportsJournalists.com will agree on. Who could possibly be for metal bats?

Although to be fair - if you outlaw metal bats then only outlaws will have them.

alleyallen - metal bats don't break - so leagues with little funds culd use the same couple of bats the whole season.

 

Cost

 

HUGE cost differential.

 

Yeah, I was about to jump in with what Steve and the former Pube said. It's probably not as big a problem in little league since they don't swing as hard and bats break less often, but I think I read somewhere that you'd need an average of eight wood bats per player for a college season. That's a lot of do-re-mi money. It's not going to be quite that bad in high schools, but I bet a lot of schools who have trouble funding baseball as it is will react to a metal bat ban by not fielding a team at all.

 

it used to be cost... but now the top of the line metal bats kids use are $300 -- that's eight or so $40 wood bats

i did a story about seven or eight years ago about a little league where i was then working that went to wood

i'd love to see more go to wood

hell, i wish i grew up in a time where i used wood, alas, i was part of the metal bat generation