It's a shame to see any kid get hurt. It's also a shame to see the media spread misinformation, or to have consumer groups respond with a knee jerk reaction to an obvious tragedy.
Did that report really claim the batted ball was travelling at 130 m.p.h.? I would highly doubt that. High School baseball bats are certified to the Ball Exit Speed Ratio (BESR) standard. The most reliable testing suggests that bats to this standard outperform wood bats by about 5 m.p.h. The batted ball speed is largely dependent on the speed of the pitch and the speed the bat is swung. Major League hitters, where the pitches are faster and the bats are swung faster, generally top out at about 110 m.p.h. batted ball speed. Even with the added 5 m.p.h. with a BESR bat, 130 m.p.h. seems like a stretch for high school players.
Yet the number is thrown out as if it were fact. How could anyone possibly know this? What are the chances that someone had a radar gun on a batted ball, or timed out the time to impact to the exact millisecond?
Ironically, when a similar incident happened in New York a few years ago (which led to their ban on non-wood bats) those fighting for the ban cited a study that claimed non-wood bats could produce batted ball speeds of- you guessed it- 130 m.p.h. That study has since been proven inaccurate.
Hmmm...I wonder where they got that figure.
The report also referred to "lightweight" aluminum bats. High School rules state (and the BESR certification is based upon) that bats can be no lighter numerically than 3 ounces less than the length of the bat. For instance, a 34" long bat cannot weigh less than 31 ounces, or a 36" bat less than 33 ounces. These weights are comparable to wood bats of similar length.
The whole point of the BESR certification is to produce bats that mimic the same effects of wood bats. Yes, the non-wood bats can hit the ball just a little bit faster. High School baseball has already recognized this and last year modified their bat standards once again to make bats in their game perform even more closely and predictably like wood bats. This new standard- Batted Ball Coefficient of Restitution or BBCOR- goes into effect next season.
When you stop and think about the, literally, millions of batted balls that will be hit in all games during a single season, it makes you realize how exceedingly rare an injury like this really is. If we switched to all wood bats tomorrow, the same injuries could happen and would happen with the same rare frequency.
By the way, in high school baseball it is perfectly legal for any defensive player to wear a protective face mask. And, of course, in softball any player can wear one. And wood bats are legal in either sport.
Please don't take this the wrong way- I'm not trying to minimize the tragedy that this family has gone through and I wouldn't wish something like this on anyone. But if a parent is concerned about the possibility of injury, then why wouldn't the parent insist that his child wear a perfectly legal piece of protective equipment? On the same token, if a parent is concerned about injury to another child, why does that parent purchase the latest high-tech bat for their own kid?
Sure, the kid might resist or complain. As the parent, don't you have the final say? If you feel so strongly about safety, why wait for some third party to asume the parental role and legislate it into your sport. Avail yourself, and your child, of the protective equipment and safer bats that are already an option for any player right now.
