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Sports

Metal Bats May Strike Out

A bill in Sacramento calls for a ban on the use of metal baseball bats at the high school level.

When Calabasas High baseball coach Ed Edsall was in high school, he saw a pitcher get hit in the face with a batted ball off an aluminum bat. The ball came back so quick, the pitcher on the opposing team didn't have time to react. It hit him and broke the bone around his eye socket.

"It was the most disgusting sound," Edsall said.

Edsall said he can't remember if that pitcher ever recovered or returned to play baseball. In his six years of coaching baseball at Calabasas, he has yet to witness another incident like the one that happened when he was in high school in Turlock. There have been instances, though, in which high school players have been critically injured or even killed by balls hit off aluminum bats.

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The use of aluminum bats are at the center of a legislative debate in Sacramento. There is a bill circulating through the Capitol that would put a moratorium on the use of metal bats at the high school level.

The legislation is a result of a baseball player in Marin County who was hit in the head with a ball off a metal bat.

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But coaches and players at Calabasas High and in the Marmonte League are not so sure banning the use of metal bats will prevent or reduce the number of injuries resulting from batted balls. If it passes, the High School Baseball Safety Act of 2010 would prohibit the use of non-wood bats until July 1, 2014.

In addition to the safety issues, there are financial factors to consider. The use of wood bats would also change the strategy of the high school game, says two Marmonte League coaches.

"If high schools switched to wood bats, there would have to be a learning curve," Edsall said.

When Edsall was in college at California Lutheran University, he used a wood bat for practice during the off-season. He said it took some time to learn how to hit with wood bats without breaking them. High school players would have to learn those same intricacies. But Edsall said using wood bats wouldn't necessarily reduce the risk of injuries from batted balls.

His views are backed up by a professor of applied physics at Kettering University in Flint, Mich. Dr. Daniel A. Russell wrote an article for the Kettering University web site in 2008 that states the available scientific evidence suggests that banning metal bats would not necessarily make baseball any safer. The balls that come off wood bats are only a fraction of a second slower than those off a metal bat. The difference is minimal and the chances of being seriously injured are almost the same.

Try explaining that to the family of Gunnar Sandberg. He is the pitcher from Marin Catholic High School in Northern California who was hit in the head from a ball off an aluminum bat and needed emergency brain surgery as a result of the incident.

His is one of a number of stories throughout the country about high school baseball players injured critically from balls hit off aluminum and metal bats.

The Marin County Athletic League voted in March to suspend the use of non-wood bats for the rest of the 2010 season and called on other high school league to do the same.

Jordan Pollack, an outfielder on the Calabasas baseball team, said he prefers using wood bats as opposed to metal bats. He uses wood bats in the Connie Mack leagues when he is not playing high school baseball.

"I definitely prefer wood bats," Pollack said. "I hit BP with my woody. The wood bats help with bat speed."

Ben Hecht, another player on the Calabasas baseball team, said he used wood bats when he played Little League before he started high school. He was a pitcher in Little League and said the threat of getting hit with a ball never concerned him.

"There's always a safety issue. It's a ballistic game," Hecht said. "I don't think it's that big a deal."

In addition to the safety issue, there is a financial concern. However, Scott Fullerton, the baseball coach at Moorpark High School, said the high cost of wood bats is a "fallacy."

He has been offered an opportunity through Easton, a baseball bat company, to purchase surplus minor league wood bats for $40 apiece. A metal bat or aluminum bat can cost between $200 and $300. Fullerton estimates a baseball player would need four to six wood bats to complete four years of playing in high school.

Finally, there is the strategy issue. Oddly enough, using wood bats would affect pitchers more than hitters, Edsall and Fullerton said.

They suggest pitchers would throw inside more, become more aggressive and try to intimidate hitters. It might have an opposite result of being hit with a batted ball. There might be an increase in hit batters.

Some teams might change their offensive strategies as well. Waiting for a player to hit a three-run home run would not be a luxury some teams would have if non-wood bats were required to be used. Hit-and-run, sacrifice bunts and stolen bases would be used more frequently and change the way some teams approach the game.

But Hecht said some players would have a problem adjusting their at-bats.

"You can't change your approach at the plate," Hecht said. "Pitchers will throw inside more. But I think overall it would be a positive thing, aside form the safety issue."

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