Stop the MADNESS!

VS

In case you haven't checked lately, wooden bats are expensive. Louisville Sluggers are ranging from $25 to $130 each. Yesterday, as I watched Around the Horn, Bill Plaschke of the L.A. Times said that aluminum bats were dangerous and should be replaced by wood. In college, not all teams have the luxury of the boatloads of money that many of their counterparts have. I'll go a step further.

The way a wooden bat is held is totally different. If you were to swing at an inside pitch (and connect) you break your bat, or at least bruise your hands bad enough to send you to the DL for a good week. If you catch that one with an aluminum bat, your pinkie stings for a minute, and you still have your "Wonder Boy".

At the Baseball Winter Meetings last December, the Professor and I had the privilege to see an aluminum bat which had a unique grip. I believe it was an independent bat maker, and the name escapes me, however it caused you to grip an aluminum bat the same way you would grip a wooden bat. The Don Mattingly V-Grip model, if I recall correctly. I said to the Professor, "This feels amazing in your hands." Mattingly did hit a little in his day.

The majority of injuries in baseball are due to improper sliding, such as sprained ankles and abrasions. As far as safety goes, aren't we the nation that straps helmets to our children and have them thump heads on the gridiron? Just look at Troy Aikman, Steve Young, or any of the 'Old School' football players and the way concussions have come to the forefront.

On Sports Law Blog there is an interesting article on this very subject. It states that baseball is the safest sport of all with 6.1 injuries per 1000 players. There are only 0.11 "catastrophic injuries" per 100,000 players. That's 0.0001%. I know this is no consolation to those who have been injured by a come backers. I wish you health.

And all woods are not made alike either. What's next? Mr. Bonds won't be using that Canadian Maple to send the 'Million Dollar Ball' into the stands? Ash is the most used wood, due to its abundance, rather than its density. Want density? Let's swing lignum vitae. For those of you who avoided Botany 466, that wood is three and a half times stronger than a Red Oak (and sinks in water)! Get the point? The aluminum bat companies, along with many baseball programs, have incorporated the 'technology' with safety by increasing the length to weight ratio (3 inches longer than the weight in ounces). This simulated the weight of the wood, so the aluminum can not be swung faster than wood.

The ping is the way that allows kids to play on a daily basis, and gives that smaller guy the ability to get a base hit, or even a dinger. Stop with the bashing of the bats. There is no economic way to keep the game invented by Americans back long before Political Correctness came to the plate. A good aluminum bat that will last as long as your child's playing career costs in the $35 range. The ball coming off the bat .02 seconds quicker is the price you pay to be "The Man on the Bump", with all eyes on you. I'd take 60' 6" and aluminum bats before I went on a crossing route with Ronnie Lott looking for my head!