OT Lawmakers Look To Ban Metal Bats

[Shopdog]

New Jersey lawmakers are trying to ban metal bats, stating that they are more dangerous than wooden bats. A child was struck by a ball hit off a metal bat and is now in a coma. Now, I'm not trying to minimize what happened to the child, but isn't this a bit too far? Its just another thing that someone is trying to take from us. I was talking toour neighbor yesterday about how the place has changed. He's well into his 70's and said that if I were around back then I would be horrified of all the freedoms we've lost over the past 50 years. I remember when I was in elem. school, for show n tell I took 30.06 bullets, yes LIVE bullets. No one thought anything of it. We used to take our guns to school for hunting afterwards across the street! I used to ride in my parents cars IN the back windows! Yes I know its all for safety, but its just another bit of life "THEY" take away. If "they" stop telling us how to live safely then maybe we wouldn't have to be building all these damn houses and projects and taking away all the land!

Sorry had to rant. But there is wood content,, WOODEN BATS!!!

Anyone make they're own wooden bat?

Shopdog

[Brent Beal]

I remember in the 6th grade a boy took his swing and let go of the bat. It went right back at the catcher's face and the end of the bat went right into one of his eyes (can't remember which eye), and he wore that black eye for almost two weeks. The metal bat didn't do anything wrong, it is where on the child's head the ball struck him. I remeber riding in the back seat of he car unrestrained, but the cars were cars then and not made out of plastic and fiberglass. I also rmember taking the Mauser from WWII to school, kind of like show and tell. No one thought a thing of it. I am always referring to the "good old days" and someone quickly reminds me that they weren't so good. Maybe not, but they were better than some we have now.

[Joe Gorman]

Guy running a shop up the road a bit made one a while back. Can't quite see anyone using it at a game though.

[Swingman]

My turn, then ...

Bats shouldn't be made from anything but wood! Just compare the satisfying sound of a wooden bat hitting a ball with the aggravating, metallic ping of a metal bat.

The sound of an aluminum bat hitting a ball, akin to someone scraping fingernails on a blackboard, is a crime against nature, Mom and Apple Pie, and could only be enjoyed by some dufus who wears his baseball cap backwards ... indeed, there oughta be a law!

Now, someone else's turn ...

[Lee Michaels]

"Swingman" countered with

Metal bats, wooden bats, it has all been done before.

How about a polypropylene bat, the Brooklyn Smasher?

[B A R R Y]

Neither should hockey sticks.

[professorpaul]

FWIIW, I understand that in eastern Europe, where you can't have firearms, that an aluminum bat is the weapon of choice among thugs, etc. You can see where this is all heading...

[Upscale]

So, instead of the satisfying sound of a wooden bat or the tinny sound of an metal bat, what sound do you get?

[Lee Michaels]

"Upscale" wrote

You get the swarmy, unsettling sound of PLASTIC!! It is similar to the sound of your credit card going through the scanner, only much louder. What could be more contemporary and american than that?

(I have had no experience with this bat.) The above remarks were my crude attempt at a metaphor of some kind.

It should be pointed out that the above bat was primarily designed as a serious, non-firearm weapon. As though the wooden and aluminum bats were somehow or another inadequate in this respect.

[J. Clarke]

Oh--BASEBALL bats. I thought at first that they were on about some kind of Halloween decor.

Classic example of idiot legislators going after the wrong end of the problem, probably because "if it only saves one life" and "for the children" (two of the scariest phrases in the English language when uttered by a politician) can be combined to get votes and banning aluminum bats is _easy_.

The real problem seems to be that kids are more vulnerable than adults to "commotio cordis", a condition where a light impact to the chest at just the right time can induce fibrillation, and when they're tired from exercise they beome even more so. Doesn't matter if it was an aluminum bat, a wooden bat, or a thrown ball, if it hits at just the right time and in just hte right place the kid goes down and if he doesn't get prompt and competent help he stays down. 50 mph on a softball will do it for a healthy adult--that doesn't take an aluminum bat.

What makes more sense to me is a triple strategy--teach the kids to protect themselves--that's as simple as holding your gloved hand in front of your chest when the ball is in play and you aren't actively in the process of trying to catch it (not a problem for fielders IMO, the runner shouldn't be square-on to the ball anyway so if I understand the mechanism correctly he's less at risk); teach the coaches and officials to administer CPR to kids and require that they have a current certificate in order to coach or officiate; require that _somebody_ have an automatic defibrillator available at each game--how this will be paid for and who's responsible is why the legislators get paid the big bucks.

[J T]

Tue, Oct 31, 2006, 10:35am (EST+5) [e-mail] (Shopdog) doth wonder: Now, I'm not trying to minimize what happened to the child, but isn't this a bit too far? Its just another thing that someone is trying to take from us.

Didn't you know? Being elected to "any" political office seemingly immediately gives you two magical powers.

1. You think you are now intelligent,
2. You think you are now an expert on any subject. Unfortunately any "honesty" and "common sense" powers are at the same time taken away.

JOAT If it can't kill you, it ain't a sport.

[busbus]

My son has played organized baseball since he was 5 and he is 15 now and everybody has always used a metal bat. They were just coming into being when I was in Little League and have come a long way.

I remember when he was 9-years-old and I saw a somewhat smallish

10-year-old who wasnt all that good literally CRUSH a ball that almost took off the pitchers head. It was then and there that I realized something is way wrong with metal bats and it isn't the stupid "Ping!" sound either. The ball was definitely coming off the bat harder and faster than off a wooden bat.

I have done a lot of reseasrch and have come to realize that a metal bat is supposed to do just that: Increase the speed the ball comes off the bat and the distance. The way it does that is they have come out with more and more metals that can be made into a bat with the walls being thinner and thinner and more flexible. Inside the metal bat is a bladder like in a football. This bladder contains various type of pressurized gas. WHen the walls of the bat are flexed into the bladder, the ball literlaly springs off the bat with ungodly power and speed.

Colleges have been thinking about switching from metal bats to wooden ones again as well. The metal bats, obviously, last a lot longer because they rarely break. But when the players use a wooden bat for the major league scouts, their balls fall 40-50-60+-feet shorter than they normally would. This turns a player who is a home run hitter into a hitter that hits long flyball outs. This proves the theory that a ball is hit further with a metal bat than with a wooden bat.

Finally, I know it is harder for fielders, especially outfielders, to play their position with metal bats because a dinky little pop to the pitcher sounds the same as a double against the fence. Not that somehting like that should make a difference but when a skinny little kid can hit a ball a lot harder than he is supposed to, it gets dangerous. And don't forget: 9- and 10-year-olds pitch from 48-feet away and their reflexes are not nearly as developed as an older person and if that skinny little kid hits a ball like a 16-year-old, don't you think that puts the pitcher at a severe disadvantage?

I will get off my soapbox now...

[damian penney]

Couldn't the kids just wear a chest protector, like you can use for Cricket

[Lew Hodgett]

At the end of WWII, when that 70's neighbor was maybe 10 years old, there were less than 150 million people in the USA.

We just passed 300 million a few days ago.

The amount of land hasn't changed except when Alaska & Hawaii were granted statehood.

That land across the street where you used to hunt, probably has houses on it today.

The point is that more people in the same space create more demanding conditions.

Lew

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Before you do, what about the schools that are banning playing Tag now?

[Lee Michaels]

"Edwin Pawlowski" wrote

If I ever get a surplus of time, I will write a book detailing all the things that happened to me in elementary school. People think I make this stuff up. They are horrified. And it was just a typical country school where I grew up.

Example; If a ball went over the fence, we needed three guys to retrieve it. Two to keep the angry, territorial bull distracted. And one to recover the ball. Needless to say, the two bull distractors were are fastest runners. And the reason we used two was if one fell down.

And the fact that almost no one at our school had money enough to wear those fancy tennis shoes to play soccer. We just used our regular work/logging boots.

[Brent Beal]

About as annoying as the "ping" from those non wooden drivers everyone seems to be using this day and time!!!

[Tom Watson]

I'm with you, Lew.

I believe that there is a critical density of population that describes the difference between living a decent life and not.

I have no backup for this, in a scientific sense, but it is a strong feeling in me.

A strong feeling is usually a synthetic judgment about a condition.

It is not scientifically informed but it is the end result of your experience in life.

There is perhaps a perfect density that describes the boundary between the vibrance associated with a strong community vs. the dehumanizing aspects of overcrowding.

I grew up in a small town that was the focal point of the surrounding agricultural community.

As you say, the places that I used to hunt and fish are now covered by houses.

It seems far too urban to me.

New arrivals admire it for its rustification.

Go figger.

I believe that the Nation State took over from the City State concept because of density.

Although it addressed volume - I do not think that the concept addressed quality of life.

But, here we are.

Regards,

Tom Watson

tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)

[Barry Lennox]

Never mind bats and bullets, the politicians really must do something about one of the deadliest scourges that affects all our kiddies, and our old folk too. See:

[Tom Veatch]

...

I recall reading some (sociological?) studies years ago done with lab rats. As I recall, as their population density increased, the rate of aberrant behavior increased much faster than did the population. Sort of like the rats were being forced inside each others "fight or flight" radius.

Wonder if that's why there seems to be so many two-legged vermin these days.