Bats DUGOUT CHAT Tom Magedanz - 02.28.2000

You'd think that baseball bats would remain one of life's simpler things the crack of northern white ash on horsehide to produce a squarely hit line drive, one of humankind's most satisfying feelings. Well, maybe. But a quick browse through a baseball equipment catalog is an eye opener; would you believe $200 for a high-tech, ultralight scandium alloy Little League bat? (That's 11-year-olds, folks.) Now, not all Little League bats cost $200, but they're all more expensive than one might guess, and so are bats for Teeners, Legion, high school, and college players (morelike $280). Welcome to the new millennium. However, there are some rules changes coming that may bring a little sanity to the baseball bat world.

As most everyone knows, wood bats are a scarce commodity, although wood is staging a comeback in a few elite high school and college baseball programs and summer leagues. Professional baseball is the only group still required to use wood bats. Metal bats came into use during the 1970s as an economy measure - that's right, to save money. Wood bats break (these cost $30 to $40 these days), and people reasoned that an unbreakable substitute for wood would be cheaper in the long run. The early aluminum bats did just that. They weighed almost the same as their wood counterparts, they performed similarly for the most part, and they didn't break. You could get a few more hits off the handle with the early aluminum bats, but bat speed was about the same. Hitting didn't change all that much; the only real problem was that metal bats sounded funny no satisfying crack of wood on leather.

However, things began to change in the '90s. Hitters know that bat speed is probably the most important factor in hitting for power and in making consistent contact, and one way to get more bat speed is to use a lighter bat. Ted Williams in the 1940s seems to have been the first to figure this out. Ted swung as light a bat as he could find (31 or 32 ounces), unlike his predecessor, Babe Ruth who used brute strength on bats that sometimes reached 50 ounces. Wood bats can be made so that the number of ounces minus the number of inches, known as the weight-length ratio or the "drop," is -2 or -3 at the lightest. Lighter than that, the wood is too fragile, and the bat quickly breaks. Aluminum bats don't have that problem.

Somewhere along the line, bat companies discovered that players, and more importantly, players' parents, would pay large amounts of money for bats that would improve hitting performance. The race was on between the three major metal bat makers, Louisville Slugger, Easton, and Worth, to produce lighter and stronger metal bats while keeping the barrel diameter as large as possible (2
¾" is the legal maximum, same as for wood). These are advertised as "megabarrel," "monster barrel," and so on, and they cost a lot of money. Worth even produced a bat that electronically eliminates all hand vibration. Kids know the brand and model names, and if they consider themselves serious baseball players, they have to have this year's new model.

In recent years, criticism of this trend has focused on three areas: safety of pitchers, fielders, and runners who can't get out of the way of high tech line drives; distortion of the game of baseball with too much offense and artificially improved hitting performance; and the cost of these high performance ultralight bats. Another problem occurs when pro prospects must suddenly switch to heavier wood bats in the minor leagues; many have problems making the adjustment.

A few years ago, the NCAA and the National Federation of High School Sports adopted rules to restrict the weight of bats for college and high school play. Both groups prohibited bats that were lighter than -5. For example, 32"27oz and 33"28oz bats are legal (both are -5), but a 33"27oz bat is not legal because it is too light (-6). American Legion baseball rules simply stated that metal bats are legal, but as a practical matter, the bat companies followed the college and high school rules, so that's what was on the market for Legion players too. There is no weight restriction, however, for little leaguers or intermediate ages, such as Teeners, and the latest little league bats have a whopping -12 drop, something that can't even be remotely approached by a wood bat. Little League bats cannot exceed a 2 ¼" barrel diameter (like a softball bat), but the most expensive intermediate bats have a maximum barrel and a drop of -8, again, something that's impossible with wood. Experience seems to show that the -5 restriction for college and high school bats is too lenient, especially for college players who are highly conditioned athletes at their physical peak. After much controversy and a lawsuit from at least one bat company, the NCAA issued a more restrictive bat rule for 1999 tournament play and for the entire 2000 college season. The NFHS recently adopted the same rule for high school baseball beginning in the 2001 season. The new rule for high school and college bats restricts barrel diameter to no more than 2 5/8" and the weight-length ratio cannot be lighter than -3. These dimensions make bats feel and swing much more like wood bats.

There will still be some advantages to hitting with a metal bat, such as a small "trampoline effect" as the ball springs off the metal bat, and the ability to get more cheap hits off the handle than with wood. By and large, however, the new rule (-3 and 2 5/8") will bring metal bats much closer in line with wood bat capabilities and handling characteristics, and hitters will need a little more skill to put the bat on the ball. The national headquarters of the American Legion has indicated that Legion baseball will most likely also adopt the NCAA bat rule at its spring meetings in May to take effect in the 2001 season to conform with high school baseball rules.

Meanwhile the bat companies are still pushing their ultralight -5s at the regular price. With two more ounces and a smaller barrel to work with, they could make perfectly functional -3 models using cheaper alloys from 3 or 4 years ago at considerably lower prices. However, they are marketing the -3s as being made from high performance alloys, and the prices are as high as ever. Oh well, just be thankful we're not shopping for slow-pitch softball bats (for old guys like myself); they're not bound by all those pesky baseball rules. They use titanium, and some sell for $450 or so, top of the line. For a softball bat. Honest.