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New crusade against aluminum bats?

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by outofplace, Mar 17, 2010.

  1. Smash Williams

    Smash Williams Well-Known Member

    A high school kid got killed last year taking a pitch to the back of the neck (tried to duck out of the way of it, IIRC).

    Sports are dangerous. Even at the youngest levels, there's a slight risk of injury or death. Yes, you need to do reasonable things to make them safer, but what odds are needed to make something a reasonable concern?

    OOP - Where'd you get the 130 number from? I've never seen that speed associated with metal bats. 100-110 at the highest, usually, and that assumes a relatively high speed pitch coming in.
     
  2. outofplace

    outofplace Well-Known Member

    It was in one of the stories I read about the incident.
     
  3. outofplace

    outofplace Well-Known Member

    Amazing just how funny a 16-year-old kid in a coma is. At least I know sooner or later Junkie will delete the evidence of his latest sad attempt at humor.
     
  4. outofplace

    outofplace Well-Known Member

    When you say that the danger of using aluminum bats is a joke, you are making light of what happened to that kid.
     
  5. outofplace

    outofplace Well-Known Member

    Hey, if you want to campaign against letting kids swim, go for it. I'll listen. On this thread, I'm talking about metal bats. I'm saying for safety and other reasons, I can see a strong argument to be made for going back to wood.
     
  6. outofplace

    outofplace Well-Known Member

    Part of the problem is the bats are getting more dangerous over time. Perhaps the way they are made could be changed rather than switching to wood, but the best option is still using wood at all levels.
     
  7. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    As a Bay Area teenager fights for his life, a state lawmaker calls for a three-year ban on non-wood bats.

    http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/26/BAKQ1CLFAM.DTL

    I am assuming this won't pass, but the kid's league has switched to wood bats for the rest of the season. I would love to see the science Bloomberg cited in ending his opposition to metal bats, because the "science" I saw five years ago seemed to come straight from Easton.

    I think the same or similar goal could be accomplished by regulating the weight distribution and barrel size. I'm coaching 8-year-olds and I see 30-inch, 21-ounce bats with a 2 3/4" barrel. (That's at least a half-inch bigger than the standard size.) Sometimes when I'm pitching batting practice, the ones that come whizzing past my head scare the hell out of me.
     
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