Seen a lot of broken bats of late. I recently purchased two wood softball bats, one Maple and the other Bamboo. Both came with what looks like a thin fiberglass mesh wrapped around the bat. It covers the area between the knob and the label. It’s supposed to hold the pieces of the bat together if it should break. Anyone know why MLB doesn’t use this?
Rule 1.10:
One does not change the rules of Major League Baseball in such a substantial way without a damn good reason.
Some bats break because the players shave the handles to lighten them- they splinter more easily.
Even if not shaven baseball bats are now very narrow near the handle. In the olden days it was felt that the bigger the bad the better. BabeRuth swung an oak tree. Over the past few decades they decided that bat speed is more important. The barrel is still thick but the handle is thin. If the batter misjudges and hits the ball near the handle it breaks.
Major contributing factor:
>Old-growth trees are denser than farmed lumber
Lumber that is farmed and generally younger than natural ‘old growth’ trees is just not as dense. Your densest ashes and maples (just like oaks and pines) are going to be the older/natural forest varieties. Farmed lumber (aka ‘new growth’) just lacks the density that comes with old, old, old age. Maple and ash are truly dense/hard, but relative to older trees, the farmed trees are not.
And, like everything else, to make a noticeable difference in real-world use, it happens along with other changes, like stronger players, custom shaving of the bat/handle, etc.
Actually I don’t think what SanDiegoTim’s describing would represent a violation of the rule on bat construction, any more than wrapping the handle with tape would. (Or rubbing it with pine tar, for that matter.) There are some who want to mandate such an approach.
It seems simpler and more elegant to me to just add a minimum thickness standard to the bat rule which already includes a maximum.
And some claim that maple bats ought to be banned for safety reasons:
http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2010/03/10/joe-maddon-renews-call-for-maple-bat-ban-after-david-price-injur/
I heard somewhere that the average lifetime of a bat in MLB is about 3 weeks. It’s not as if these things are permanent pieces of equipment. They are disposable, both for promotional reasons and because of wear. In addition to a minimum thickness standard, perhaps they could institute better procedures to inspect and throw out old bats.
They should just wrap the wooden bats in a kelvar or polyethylene spall shield. But then, baseball is too hard set in traditional ways, like turning a blind eye to doping.
I’m going to bring one of my bats with this wrap to a game at Petco Park in hopes of showing it to local ex-pro baseball broadcaster. Assuming I’m successful, will post comments. There is some intersting info w/regard to wood bats here: http://viperbats.com/
Some years ago MLB did some studying of the issue, but I don’t know if anything came of it. The players union might have vigorously supported the right of players to use any bat within the rules.
Here’s a link to a story on ESPN.com. Note the 2008 date.
…and as a lifelong baseball fan I say thank goodness and AMEN!