Should kids swing aluminum bats?

Considering how many kids play youth baseball or softball, it's surprising that there is a lack of agreement on whether aluminum bats are safe. A New Jersey family announced today that it is filing a lawsuit against the manufacturer of an aluminum bat as well as Little League Baseball and the store that sold the bat after the family's son was injured by a ball hit off an aluminum bat. The boy was 12 when he was struck by a line drive. He survived but suffered brain damage.

Some people say a ball comes off an aluminum bat with more force than off a wooden bat, making aluminum bats unsafe for kids. The issue has gained traction in some city councils and state legislatures. New York City last year banned metal bats from use in high school baseball games. And a bill is before the Illinois state legislature that would make it illegal for any adult to knowingly allow the use of an aluminum bat during a recreational baseball or softball game in which a person under age 13 is a participant.

For its part, the Youth Committee of USA Baseball, of which Little League International is a member, said in a statement last year:

"There is no data to indicate that the few catastrophic injuries to baseball pitchers from metal bats would not have happened if the batter was using a wood bat."

The organization noted that the national Consumer Product Safety Commission also studied the issue in 2002 and concluded there is no evidence that aluminum bats pose a greater safety risk than wooden bats.

Recreational sports give kids opportunities for much-needed exercise as well as a chance to learn sportsmanship, self-discipline, teamwork and many other values. It's tough to stomach when a child is severely injured playing youth sports. But as the blogger lawhawk said Sunday:

"While I have tremendous sympathy for the family, I think the lawsuit will ultimately go nowhere as this will likely come down to a battle of the experts, who can and will show that there's no way to assign blame to the manufacturer or anyone else as the injury could have been sustained as a result of the use of a standard wooden bat."

-- Shari Roan

Photo: Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Owen]

How about we start suing people who drive big cars as someone how might have been involved in a hit and run would have survived had the car been small, better yet, sue all car manufacturers as motor bikes must be safer as they weigh a lot less and thus the force of the impact would have been negligible in comparison.

[Peter from NY]

This is preposterous, preposterous, preposterous. The New York City law is absurd. People inevitably get hurt playing sports, but the aluminum bats have nothing or little to do with it. The NYC law is meddlesome and puts kids in the city at a disadvantage in the sport. If there were laws for everything that poses the 'risk' that playing with aluminum bats does, our freedoms would seriously be compromised. How absurd is it that people are suing the STORE for selling an aluminum bat!? Find them guilty and close every sports store in the nation. Bloomberg had the right idea threatening to veto the law; the fact that it got so great a majority as to prevent a veto makes me think the people who voted should be fired, exiled, or euthanized. The people filing the suit should be ashamed, with all due respect to the sad incident regarding their son.

[Jim Lettire]

Please chastise this ignorant family for trying to pass the responsibility for their child's injury to someone else. When you sign up for little league you need to ask yourselves what actually goes on during the contest. In baseball they are throwing and hitting hard objects with harder objects. If you feel that the risk doesn't outweigh the reward then do not let your child play. When parents sign up their children there is an implied consent to accepting the risk, which can be a potentially catastrophic injury. Parents please accept responsibility for your own decisions.

[Reunpack]

If its not good for a kid to play video games, skateboard, ride bikes, play baseball with metal bats wtf! We should just keep all our kids in suspended animation till 18 so they can then join the military and get blown up. Let KIDS, be KIDS. I remember when we had Lawn Darts how safe was that? It sure was fun though. None of my friends ever got hurt. People won't even let their kids climb trees. When I was growing up most almost all of the kids I knew were in shape. They wernt all a bunch of "fat bodies". What ever happend to a good game of ball tag?

[Don]

It's not the material that matters, it's the engineering.

If they wish to, the aluminum bat manufacturers could engineer virtually any BESR, (Ball Exit Speed Ratio), they like into any bat.

If required by the law or a governing body such as the National Federation of State High School Associations, (which oversees High School baseball in the US), the makers of bats could dial down the exit speed to that roughly equivalent to a nerf ball and bat.

Nice, safe and slow. Just like lawmakers.

[Eric Walker]

Aluminum bats are well known to hit balls harder than wood. Robert K. Adair is Professor of Physics at yale and author of the well-known book "The Physics of Baseball". From that book:

". . . [T]he aluminum bats now used for baseball will surely hit a ball appreciably farther than a wooden bat."

And "appreciably farther" translates to "at an appreciably higher velocity", which translates to "appreciably harder."

The ignoramuses at the notoriously ill-managed Consumer Product Safety Commission notwithstanding, this is not a matter on which there is any genuine controversy.

[bart]

It is too bad that this re-active type of response does not require facts or actual testing before the press condems a type of bat. Perhaps a study should be done to-I don't know-acertain a few facts. Lets start with how many millions bats used by millions of kids and how many injuries result? And can we determine that aluminum bats actually cause more injuries than wood. I used to play ball and saw many injuries from wooden bats breaking. None so far from matal bats that I have heard of. How about trying a new tactic, check for some facts and then write a story?

[Joe Cool]

There are more lawsuits filed in the USA than in any country in the world. If it was a wooded bat, then sue the forestry for allowing trees to grow. If it was a diving accident, then sue the diving board manufacturer for making the board too springy. What about the manufacturer of the baseball?...surely the raised seams certainly played a part in the injury. Also, do not forget the kid that hit the ball, I am sure he must have been on some type of performance enhancing drug that gave him incredible power. Accidents in sports happen all the time and will continue in the future. When I was young and played as a catcher, I got hit in the head with a bat, (a wooded one) and suffered a concussion, but my parents didn't file a lawsuit, that was just the way it was by choosing to play baseball. It is no surprise that the USA graduates ten times more lawyers per year than Japan and Japan graduates ten times more engineers.

[Pedro]

The science is irrefutable: aluminium bats are lighter and harder than wood, so they swing faster and hit the ball harder, so the ball goes faster and is more dangerous. Does anyone truly doubt these scientific facts????

[Amy Jones]

As a parent of a 12 yr old baseball player, playing in a league with 12 and 13 yr olds, I too have questioned if these bats are safe. I have seen many injuries especially to the pitcher,due to the speed and force the ball comes off the bat and the short distance to pitchers mount. The pitcher has no time to react. This is a very bad age because some kids have growth spurts at 12 and thirteen,yet are playing Little League because the they change the birthday rule. So, you can be playing Little League now @ 13, yet the pitchers mount is only 40 ft away!! Well, let me tell you there are some BIG 12 and 13 yr olds out there playing on a very small field.

[Doug Newman]

No conclusive data as Little League International (LLI) states is a flat out lie. The 2002 Brown University study (link below) is well known by LLI. The problem is that LLI is a well oiled money-making machine who is in bed with major corporations.

It is all about the kids right? Or perhaps it is about making Williamsport more glamorous to maximize the revenues brought in by selling television rights and corporate sponsorships?

If no data, then why are LLI approved aluminum bats labeled with a BPF of 1.15? What is BPF(Bat Performance Factor) anyway?...I encourage you to look it up. If no conclusive data, than why does LLI restrict youth bats to a BPF of 1.15 or less?

http://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/2002-03/02-037.html
...and the first paragraph from the Brown University press release.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Metal baseball bats can significantly outperform wooden bats according to a recent study by a group of Brown University bioengineers, confirming a belief widely held by players and coaches.

[k brady]

whether or not that aluminum bat is higher speed or harder is irrelevant. the fact is, the parents allowed their kid to join a league where aluminum bats are allowed. how is it sports authority's fault? how is it little league's fault? how is it the manufacturer of the bat's fault?

there was no negligence, the rules of the game are established. the parents allowed their child to participate within a defined set of rules, and then decided AFTER their child got hurt that the rules were wrong?

i'd say, unless it can be shown that a majority of the parents believed prior to the injury that aluminum bats should be removed from the game and little league refused, then no one is at fault.

sports authority being involved is just to get more attention to the lawsuit.

let's see who else they add. how about the maker of the jersey for not having more padding in it? how about the manufacturer of the glove for not making the glove big enough for him to catch the ball?

how about the builder of the field for allowing them to play on the field? where does it end?

what a waste of our already taxed judicial system...

[cracked]

1) this kid wasn't even playing Little League. All Little League did was say the bat was approved for Little League play, so that part of the suit is pretty bogus.

2) that said, Little League Party Central Committee's contention that aluminim bats don't hit harder is totally disengenuous. My 12 year old can hit an additional 100 ft (!) with an aluminum bat over a wood bat. All Little League players and coaches are very clear that the aluminum bat is more dangerous. You get more bounce ("pop" in the local jargon) and can generate more bat speed. There can't be any doubt that this makes it far harder for a pitcher 46 feet away to protect himself.

And Little League clearly recognizes that the new bats hit harder and harder every year, which is why they moved the outfield fences back for Little League World Series play last year. But they aren't going to dampen the bats because that would interfere with their de facto product placement/ advertising agreements with the manufacturers

[Josh]

This is a sad day for all youths. Sooner or later our whole world will be wrapped in bubble wrap.
Gone is the pioneer spirit and survival of the fittest. Please do not get me wrong, what happened is a tragic accident but it’s just that an accident.
I am a 24 year old male who in my short life span has seen wood playgrounds, contact sports, action figures, and games with small pieces be banned to lawyers and parents who blame everyone but themselves or a un-acceptance of an accident being an accident.

[Matt]

I'm sad that the boy was hurt, but come on, that type of thing happens everyday in different ways. If someone drowns in the ocean should we sue the water for being wet and lacking oxygen. Maybe if we nuke the ocean it would learn to not be so wet. Maybe we could dredge up sand, and make the whole ocean floor shallow so even kids could walk out to sea and never go to deep.
"Okay Mr. Prosecutor your right that's really far fetched" How about we file a lawsuit against the air for not being available to a victim of drowning.
So I think I made my point, By the way If you don't win the law suite against the baseball bat manufacture. I think you should have the pitcher arrested for attempted murder in the first degree. I also think the ball itself is being overlooked,
I bet the ball was really hard, and covered in lethal red stitching. there needs to be tests done. I bet the safer alternative will end up being, kids swinging 3 foot sections of cut up garden hose instead of bat's, and deflated tennis balls instead of those deadly hard baseball's. I have to go now and call the paramedics my wireless mouse just bit me, I hope a lawyer can help me figure out who to sue.

[Mike May]

Mike May, here, with the Don’t Take My Bat Away coalition. Don't Take My Bat Away is supported by players, coaches, fans, parents, bat makers, and associations such as the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, USA Baseball, Little League Baseball, and PONY Baseball, among others. It is a group that supports "bat of choice" when it comes to selecting the type of bat one uses in a Little League, recreational, high school, American Legion, or college baseball game.

The Don’t Take My Bat Away Coalition appreciates your interest in this baseball story. Needless to say, we take exception to the comments in Shari Roan's story that implied there are any safety concerns on the issue of wood vs. non-wood bats. Any implication that using today's non-wood/metal bat presents a safety issue has no validity. The following third-party research below supports that conclusion:

1) Since 2003, metal bats used in high schools and colleges have been scientifically regulated so that the speed of the batted balls off metal bats is comparable to that of the best major league wood bat. This standard -- known as BESR -- has been adopted by the NCAA and the National Federation of State High School Associations.

2.) Bats used at the Little League level are governed by the BPF Standard which dictates that the rebound effect of the batted ball off non-wood bats cannot exceed the rebound effect of the batted ball off a wood bat. These standards (both BESR and BPF) are presented to bat makers which they must follow.

3.) A 2007 study on the "Non-Wood vs. Wood Bats" by Illinois State University concluded that "there was no statistically significant evidence that non-wood bats result in an increased incidence of severity of injury."

4.) In 2002 (before the current standards were implemented), the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) stated "Available incident data are not sufficient to indicate that non-wood bats may pose an unreasonable risk of injury." (April 5, 2002) Obviously, since then, new regulations have been put in place to reduce the performance ability of bats even more.

One other point to consider: In the 2006 College World Series (where a metal bat by today's standards was used), the batting average in all games was .277, the average number of home runs per game was 0.82, and the average number of runs per game per team was 5.2. In the 2006 American League season (where a wood bat was used), the batting average in all games was .275, the average number of home runs per game was 1.12, and the average number of runs per game per team was 5.2. As you can see, it's virtually identical -- with different types of bats.

As for a randomly chosen college baseball team such as the one from Univ. of Missouri-St. Louis, the team’s ability to hit the ball is not impacted by either wood or non-wood. In 2007, using wood bats, UM-St. Louis hit .246 and scored 4.93 runs a game. This year’s team, using non-wood bats, hit for a slightly better average (.259), but scored fewer runs per game (4.5).

Finally, I encourage you to visit our website (www.DTMBA.com) for more information on this "wood vs. non-wood" bat topic.

Sincerely,

Mike May
Don't Take My Bat Away
6650 West Indiantown Road -- Suite 220
Jupiter, FL 33458
p: 561.427.0657
c: 561.317.6111
mmay@sgma.com