Wood vs. Aluminum

Are aluminum baseball bats too dangerous and should therefore be banned from use in league play?

On July 25, 2003, 18-year-old Brandon Patch, a southpaw pitcher for the Miles City Mavericks American Legion team, was killed after a line drive rocketed off an aluminum bat and struck him in the head.

Now, almost two years later and in an attempt to prevent future tragedies, his parents and others are on a crusade to see the national pastime, at all levels, revert to wood bats.

The data is inconclusive on the extent to which aluminum bats increase the risk of serious injury to pitchers and infielders relative to wooden bats. Testing has been limited to laboratories, and therefore does not address actual game situations (baseballs are pitched at 65 mph rather than 85, a more accurate speed for college pitching), fatigue, air resistance, etc. But there is no doubt that aluminum bats allow for faster bat speed (lighter bats and reduced moment-of-inertia allow for faster angular velocity), a larger sweet spot, and enhanced trampoline effect (the bat compresses rather than the ball, reducing the energy on the ball lost from impact with the bat) cause a pitched ball to come off the bat faster relative to a wooden bat. Here's one explanation of the physics of baseball bats. Here's some information submitted to the Consumer Product Safety Commission on baseball bat safety. (PDF file)

But it's not enough to answer that baseball is safer than other participation sports, and therefore aluminum bats are relatively safe. The question is whether aluminum bats sufficienty increase the risk of serious injury to pitchers and fielders from hit balls coming off the bat faster relative to wooden bats. This then has to be weighed against the added value from aluminum bats relative to wooden bats in terms of game dynamics (more home runs, more runs per game).  (The graph below shows the average distances of balls hit off of wooden and aluminum bats.)

The NCAA has increased regulations of aluminum and composite bats used in college baseball, but this was an effort to increase the defensive nature of the game and not to reduce the risk of injury to pitchers.

Addendum: Would I ban aluminum baseball bats? No, but as a coach I also would not allow kids younger than 12 to use them, and those older than 12 could use aluminum bats in games only. ("in games only" simply to take away the competitive advantage teams using aluminum bats would have. For kids younger than 12 I wouldn't care so much about the competition; I'm concerned more with player development and learning strategy.)

Far more suffer serious injuries from sliding head first and being hit with thrown balls than from hit baseballs.  The first is easily rectified: Sliding head first is not allowed in Little League and I would neither teach it nor allow it for high school-age players. The latter is simply part of the game and unavoidable without seriously altering the nature of baseball.

Comments

[Jack Carlson]

My Nephew Brandon Patch, the one mentioned in this article. Brandon was pitching his final American Legion game of his career when a line drive from an aluminum bat struck him in the temple. Brandon moved slightly off of the mound then sat on the mound. Brandon's Father and Coaches rushed to his side. Brandon lied down and told his Father, "Dad, I have a hell-of a headache". His Father said, "I bet you do Son, I bet you do." That was the last conversation his Father had with Brandon. Within seconds Brandon's body went into convolutions, then bleeding from the ear, vomiting blood and choking too. They rolled Brandon over on the mound to clear his airway until the ambulance arrived.

We went to the local hospital and then Brandon took the help helicopter from Helena Montana to Great Falls Montana. His Mother couldn't travel on the helicopter so I drove both parents to Great Falls. Emergency surgery soon followed Brandon's arrival. We made it to Great Falls in time but the surgeon came to tell Brandon's parents the news they had hoped not to hear. Brandon was dead. All within five hours of the time he was struck.

Since that time, we have researched the dangers of aluminum bats and found many interesting discrepancies with the bat manufactures claims. Recently, the NCAA and the major bat manufactures settled a lawsuit with Baum Bats in Detroit Michigan. Please review the attachment.

http://www.freep.com/news/statewire/sw113296_20050322.htm

We heard that some of the testimony was damaging to the bat manufactures claims of safety and that the aluminum bats performance is no greater then wooden bat performance. That may be why they decided to settle out of court after the Judge ruled that the trial shall continue.

There are great dangers with using aluminum bats. Please check out our website of www.forever11.com for more information. We just won a victory within the Montana Legislation with the recent passing of Resolution HJ19 which states, "That the State of Montana's American Legion be strongly urged to adopt a rule for all American Legion games within the State of Montana allowing only wood bats to be used and to petition the National American Legion to adopt a rule for all American Legion games allowing only wood bats to be used." We had another bill that require any baseball player playing organized baseball could only use wooden bats. That bill failed to come out of committee.

The bat manufactures came to Montana to protest this HJ19. They even requested and wrote what they thought it should say. Jim Darby of Easton Sports was the leader of the group and he did handwrite out his requests. Money over safety.

Please email us if we can be any assistance.

[bird of paridise]

All baseball bats are leathal weapons dont forget a person can be killed with a baseball bat do we need baseball bat control lawts do we need a 15 day waiting perioid to buy a baseball bat? should we be allowed to sue the loisieville slugger company?

[eddie DeMarche]

I'm the editor of a newspaper in brooklyn ny and im doing a story on the dangers of aluminum bats. i would like to talk to you about the situation.

[Mike Gunn]

The problem of safety of players seems to have secondary importance to the number of players playing Little League baseball, evidenced by the recent age change. Now we have twenty-five percent more twelve-year-olds playing Little League, pitching and hitting at a distance of 46 feet from the mound to home plate. This is way more serious/damgerous than aluminum bats--not that aluminum bats are not a problem, too.

[Al Carlson]

I have great sympathy for the family of Brandon Patch, but I cannot help but point out that one could just as easily have pointed to the ball or the failure of fielders to be required to wear helmets or any of a number of other safety measures that could reduce the risk of injury.

In any equipment sport, there will be technological advances in equipment which affect the performance. The fact is that millions of kids play little league every year and as parents we all accept a certain level of risk in allowing them to participate. What happened to Brandon is a tragedy, but blaming the bat is misplaced.