Weapon of physical harm, orrelatively innocuous piece of sports equipment?
Such has been the debatesurrounding the aluminum bat since its widespread introduction in the early1970s. Over the ensuing 30-plus years, the battle, while sometimes contentious,has generally been an unorganized, scattered affair.
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Wood bats line a high school dugout in
North Dakota. A ban on metal bats there
began this year. |
Some of the argumentsindeed have centered on safety concerns, often specific incidents of injuryinvolving a batted ball from an aluminum bat. Others have focused on aestheticconcerns, such as the pinging sound of ball hitting metal, or the sharp rise inscoring that many levels of play have experienced with the advent of non-woodbats.
Similarly, metal batadvocates have argued that wood bats are more difficult for younger players,thereby depressing childhood interest in the game, or that the bats aren’tfinancially feasible for many smaller leagues because of frequent breakage. Byand large, though, the bat debate has stayed outside the mainstream, withoutany true level of critical mass.
No longer.
Thanks to a New York Cityban of aluminum bats in high school play struck earlier this year, now beingchallenged in federal court by a collection of amateur baseball organizationsand bat manufacturers, along with broader legislative efforts developing in thestates of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, baseball bats have become afront-and-center topic in statehouses and courtrooms.
Further, both sides of thedebate see the issue rapidly spreading across the country into more politicaland legal arenas, particularly if the New York City ban is upheld, as isexpected in many camps.
A court ruling is expectedbefore the ban is scheduled to go into effect Sept. 1. The ban was approved inan override vote in April after a veto by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
North Dakota has in place astatewide ban on metal bats in high school play, and some individual towns inNew Jersey have similar metal bat bans on their books as well. Otherorganizations, such as the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association,have struck down proposed metal bat bans on multiple occasions.
Meanwhile, the LittleLeague World Series, starting this week in South Williamsport, Pa., providesanother flashpoint. Occurring in one of the key bat battleground states, thehigh-profile tournament may ultimately be forced to switch to wood bats if astate legislator there gets his way.
“This is all verytroublesome. The judgment of American sports leagues, coaches and players, schoolsand colleges — the very people closest to the game — are being superseded bypoliticians who believe they know better,” said Ari Fleischer, former WhiteHouse spokesman and current MLB adviser who has been enlisted to aid Don’t TakeMy Bat Away, a national coalition fighting metal bat bans.
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Little League Baseball says its insurance statistics
support the continued use of metal bats. |
“There is thetraditionalist argument, which has some merit, and we’re all for people makingtheir choices, wood or metal, of their own free will. But that needs to beseparated from the safety argument, which has no merit,” Fleischer said.
Others aren’t so sure.James Oddo, a New York City councilman from Staten Island, began pursuing ametal bat ban five years ago after a 14-year-old player there was hit in theface by a batted ball off an aluminum bat. In addition, in oral argumentsearlier this month in the legal challenge to the city law, New York Cityattorneys cited several studies from physics scholars showing a heightenedball-exit velocity from aluminum bats.
“It’s undisputed that metalbats have a larger sweet spot and swing faster than wood bats,” said JeraldHorowitz, senior attorney for the city of New York. “The exclusion of metalbats reduces the number of hard-hit balls in play. By excluding metal bats fromcompetitive high school games, the city will achieve its purpose of reducingthe risk of injuries to our schoolchildren and promote a player’s athleticskills.”
Not so fast, argue the batmanufacturers and other members of the metal bat lobby. They contend the issueis being engulfed by emotion and anecdotal data instead of hard, statisticalevidence. Little League Baseball, for example, operates an insurance program inconjunction with industry giant AIG. Through that program, the organizationpaid on 145 batted-ball-related injury claims in 1992, a year before tighteraluminum bat performance standards were implemented. The number of injuryclaims of this type has since steadily gone down and leveled off in recentyears to about two to three dozen per year.
“Any injury is too many,but for our level of play, we’re talking 20 or 30 injuries out of more than 160million at-bats a year,” said Stephen Keener, president and chief executive ofLittle League Baseball. “If there really was still a widespread issue aboutplayer safety, we’d be the ones leading the charge.”
That said, Little Leaguecontinues to monitor metal bat standards with an eye on regulating aluminum’spower. In 2009, Little League will require that all bats used in play bepermanently affixed with an approved bat performance factor number, whichreflects how fast a ball comes off the bat. In divisions for players older than12, bats also will be required to meet a standard of allowable bat exit speedratios, accounting further for the power generated by the bat being swung.
The bat debate also has amarketing element. Thumbing through a publication such as Baseball Americafinds plenty of ads for high-performance aluminum bats, which can cost as muchas $300 each, each with large helpings of visceral, explosive imagery alongwith promises of “maximum energy transfer,” “optimum barrel whip” and “superiortrampoline effect.” Similarly, wood bats such as Bamboo Bats, made by PinnacleSports Equipment Inc. from City Councilman Oddo’s Staten Island, N.Y., aretouted as the “new weapon in baseball.”
Keener acknowledges, “I cansort of understand people thinking what they do about these [aluminum] batsbased on some of the marketing.”
Still, the batmanufacturers and organizations such as Little League Baseball say the issue isnot one of economics. Many of today’s bat makers produce wood, metal and hybridcomposite bats instead of focusing on a single type. As for Little League, itreceives about $360,000 a year in marketing royalties from metal bat makers,about 2 percent of its $18 million operating budget, and that sum would likelygo up under a wood bat mandate. At the same time, metal bats are believed tohave in many instances higher profit margins than their wood counterparts.
“We think kids should havea choice, and we have concern what will happen to youth participation inbaseball should these bans become more widespread,” said Jim Darby, senior vicepresident of promotions for prominent bat manufacturer Easton Sports.
MLB is not a direct partyto any of the legislative efforts or legal fights on the metal batbattleground, but the issue has created some ideological divisions within themajor league ranks. New York Yankees pitcher Mike Mussina has spoken outagainst the ban. Mussina grew up by and still lives near Little Leagueheadquarters and is a member of the organization’s board. Meanwhile, longtimeNew York Mets reliever John Franco has supported Oddo’s efforts.
MLB Commissioner Bud Seligin January wrote to New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, stating, “Iam very sympathetic and in total agreement with what you are trying to dorelative to wooden bats.” MLB, however, has not taken a formal stand on batsafety, and part of the city’s legal case centers on aesthetic elements thatare part of MLB’s continued embrace of wood bats.
Overall, though, the issueremains very much one of the amateur baseball establishment fighting againstthe political world.
“You’ve got all thesevarious parties across the game, all in agreement on this issue,” said DavidEttinger, a Detroit lawyer who has represented Easton and is now working withthe broader coalition. “How often do you see something like this?”
