The Danger of Metal Bats

Brendan Bernstein

The Danger of Metal Bats

In 2006, 12 year old Stephen Domalewski was pitching in a little league game, and was hit in the chest by a line drive, and his life hasn’t been the same since. Since 2006, Stephen has not been able to walk because of his extensive loss of oxygen due to his heart stopping immediately when he was hit on the field.

In the mid 1970’s when metal bats were introduced for their superior performance and durability over wooden bats, nobody called their safety into question. However, over the past decade, little league and college officials have been calling into question the safety of these bats because of many injuries like Stephen’s. Bats today advertise and market by saying that their bat produces ball exit speeds higher than that of any other bats, which may be appealing to each batter, but little league and high school pitchers and infielders are at risk more and more each year. Without a doubt, baseball will be a safer game today if metal bats are replaced by wooden bats, it is just more of a question of whether or not the players and bat companies will accept this move.

Each and every year, the new Metal Bats being introduced, get better and better creating a wider gap between the performance of metal and wooden bats. Numerous studies over the years have shown why these metal bats are so much more effective than wooden bats, and to find out how to limit the superiority of these metal bats. Physicist Daniel A Russell, of Kettering University concluded through many studies that Metal Bats have the potential to hit a baseball 8 mph harder than wooden bats. This difference may not seem like a lot, but can be the difference between a deflected baseball by the pitcher, and a line drive directly of his or her chest. Studies have shown that a youth pitcher (little league, high school, or college) needs at least .4 seconds to react to a batted ball, and any baseball hit over while balls traveling at speeds greater than 94 mph get to the pitcher in less than that time. This is exactly where the 8 mph difference between potential batted ball speeds off of metal and wooden bats comes into play so severely. Numbers have shown that batted balls off of wooden bats typically travel at a maximum speed of 93 mph while balls of metal bats can travel at speeds up to 103 mph(these are not rock solid numbers, whereas stronger players, with better technique could possibly have the potential to hit these baseballs even faster, but are instead typical numbers). On top of these statistics is the fact that the speed calculated that the ball takes to get to a pitcher was calculated for 60 ft mounds, where high school, college players, and major league players pitch from, as opposed to the dismal 46 feet that high school players pitch from. If you take into account how close little league pitchers pitch from, and the speed that baseballs have the potential to come off of metal bats, it is clear why there have been so many injuries in little league baseball, and clear that there is need for a change.

Through studies, the gap between the performance of metal and wooden bats has been pinned down to three main features of metal bats. First off, the barrel of metal bats are hollow, as opposed to the solid barrels of wooden bats, which alone creates a major difference in performance. Daniel Russell, a physicist with a Ph. D. in applied physics concluded that this difference affects the balance point of each bat. Through experiments he determined that even a heavier metal bat can be swung faster than a lighter wooden bat, because of their differences in their center of mass. In fact, it was found that on average metal bats are swung 3 mph faster than wooden bats, which leads to an 4.5 mph difference in batted ball speed (for the same exact swing). This 4.5 mph difference in batted ball speed is an enormous difference, seeing as it can propel a baseball about 30 ft further, and because it will lead to drastically less reaction time for infielders and pitchers where the batted ball is most likely headed. Another cause of the performance gap between metal and wooden bats is the trampoline effect of metal bats. Through studies, Daniel Russell determined that when a baseball comes into contact with a wooden bat, the baseball will actually compress to around half of its diameter, causing about ¾ of its energy to be lost. On the other hand, when a baseball comes into contact with a metal bat, the bat will compress and store energy from the ball that it will then transfer back to the ball on its way out. This decreases the compression of the baseball, causing the baseball to lose less energy, while also delivering it extra energy causing the baseball to travel with greater speeds. The third and final difference that causes the difference in performance between metal and wooden bats is the size of the “sweet spot” on each bat. The sweet spot of a bat is defined as the area of the bat where the baseball comes off the fastest. Because the sweet spot is bigger on metal bats, it is easier to hit the ball harder than on a wooden bat, where to hit the ball at its maximum velocity a batter needs to perfectly hit the baseball. These 3 factors that cause metal bats to outperform wooden bats are causing the safety of these bats to be called into question, and are leading to baseball becoming an increasingly dangerous sport today.

Prior to 2011, through studies on the factors that cause the performance of metal bats to be so great, three major restrictions had been placed on metal bats, but once players and companies had adapted to these, their limitations were essentially cancelled out by company’s innovation, and players ability to adapt. As seen in this graph, prior to 2011, the 3 major restrictions that were placed were first weight limits, then performance standards, and then composite bats were banned. With the 1996 weight limits and the 1999 performance standards, also known as BESR, officials tried to limit the minimum weights of bats allowed to limit the maximum speed a baseball can come off of a bat. However, both did a poor job of calculating this because they made assumptions that were not true, such as the speed of pitches coming in, how fast people are able to swing the bat, etc. In 2009 composite bats were banned, because it was found that after this certain type of bat was broken-in through use overtime, it actually did not still pass the BESR certifications. After examining this chart is is seen that after each restriction was placed on metal bats, average college batting averages fell steeply for a few years to then only rise back once again to where they previously were. However, in 2011 the BBCOR standard was enacted which requires metal bats to produce batted ball speeds exactly the same as wooden bats, and batting averages fell steeply. Today all college and high school players are required to use bats that fall under these standards, but this certification is not required in little league. There is heavy debate over whether or not this will be successful, and as more data comes out about batting averages and batted ball speeds it will be seen.

In my opinion, the only way to completely curb the dangers to the game of baseball, is to completely ban metal bats throughout baseball, for the safer wooden bats. I have this opinion for a few main reasons. First off, as seen through the chart, companies are able to adapt to restrictions and produce bats with new technology that are able to get around the standards of bats, to produce bats that are able to hit baseballs with speeds greater than wood. Also, what the BBCOR failed to do was limit the size of the sweet spot of metal bats. Sweet spots of metal bats are still much bigger than that of wooden bats, creating more hard hit baseballs off of metal bats, and more chances for injuries. There is a reason that major league players still use wooden bats, and that is because if metal bats were put into their hands, the injuries in the game would skyrocket, whether these bats were BBCOR or not. Not only are metal bats safer through all players as seen through studies, aluminum bats also help players develop their talents and skills for playing at higher levels. If every single player had to use wooden bats, hitting would more be about talent than who has the better metal bat, which it is a lot of now debatably. On top of this most players that plan on playing at the higher levels already train with wooden bats because they are much harder to hit well with. Because of all of the factors that wooden bats don’t have that metal bats do, such as a reduced sweet spot size and no trampoline effect, it takes much more skill and perfection to hit with wooden bats. Because of this most players train with wooden bats in the offseason to better their hitting for in season. If players started using these wooden bats at a younger age, their hitting ability would be immensely improved, and their chances for baseball success later in life would also be greatened.

Today baseball is becoming an increasingly dangerous game, where change is imminent and necessary. Injuries from batted balls are no longer a rarity, and today many players are living in fear. When baseball comes to the point where many officials recommend heart guards, along with face protection in the field, it is clear that change is needed. Metal bats have caused this drastic downturn in the safety of baseball, and the only way to promote the safety of these players is to ban metal bats in baseball for safer and more skill promoting wooden bats.