Real Kids Doing Real Science

The Public Broadcasting System's Dragonfly TV show for kids ran a great little piece on wood vs. metal bats a while back. You can see it on YouTube by clicking the title of this post or by going here to their website.

I won't spoil the results of Nick's and Reed's experiment. It's a short watch -- about eight and half minutes.

Thanks to Jarrod Brissenden of JustWoodBats.com for bringing this to our attention.

Apology Post: A Personal Note to Readers

Since March, our family has been inundated by the initiation of Jesse Biddle's junior year of baseball with trips to Arizona State, Oregon State, North Carolina, and the University of Oregon (photo to left was taken in Portland at Game 2 of the renewed Civil War between Oregon and Oregon State, a cold and wet late March Saturday evening) -- all schools making scholarship bids to get the kid to pitch for them.

It turns out Jesse's choice of schools (after tremendous turmoil, he has verbally committed to George Horton's Oregon Ducks) was the easy part. We've been dealing with scouts, prospective advisers, media, focused training, lots of great high school games, and trying to match Jesse's schedule playing with the Philadelphia Senators with special opportunities to play in national showcases in June (USA Baseball Tournament of Stars) and August (East Coast Pro Showcase and Area Code Games).

This post, then, is an apology for not staying caught up on content. There's a lot going on in the wood vs. metal debate and I've dropped the ball.

At the same time, it's been an exciting and wild time watching this kid of ours move into the early phases of prime time as a player. Hopefully, now that the high school season is over and the summer schedule set, I'll do a better job reporting in these pages.

In the mean time, check out this short video clip that Comcast SportsNite did on Jess in April. More perspectives on hitting with wood soon...

See you on the field.

Hitting with Maple

According to Major League Baseball, in 2008 a research team working for their Safety and Health Advisory Committee analyzed 2,232 broken bats gathered from July to the end of the regular season. 756 of these bats broke into multiple pieces (recall there were several instances during the season where people, including an umpire, were seriously injured by flying chunks of maple). The researchers found that maple bats were three times as likely to shatter into multiple pieces than more traditional ash bats. (Note that while all the press seems to be focused on maple as a problem, birch is also on the list of concern).

The team of researchers include: David Kretschman of the Forest Products Laboratory (part of the USDA Forest Service); Dr. Carl Morris, a Harvard professor of statistics; Dr. James Sherwood, an engineering professor and director of the Baseball Research Center at the University of Massachusetts - Lowell; and representatives of TECO, an independent wood certification company based in Wisconsin.

The researchers' recommendations were presented to MLB in December. Their initial findings are based on the structure of maple as a wood vs. ash. Maple is considered a diffuse-porous wood, and ash is a ring-porous wood. In a nutshell, ring-porous wood has different growth stages during the spring and summer, whereas diffuse-porous wood grows more evenly. The result is that diffuse-porous wood yields a sort of sandwich layer between dense wood and less dense, more porous, layers. The less dense layers are the ones that flake and split on ash bats. For maple there is no real sandwiching. Growth layers are more uniformly dense and, therefore, harder. As a result, when maple breaks the rupture is often far more dynamic and unpredictable.

All of this, according to the researchers, relates to trademark placement for bats. Traditionally, trademarks provide hitters with an indication of which face of the bat to hit with. To compensate for the porous layering of ash bats, the idea was for batters to use what is called the edge grain side of the bat (think of hitting something with the side of a deck of cards rather than the top or bottom card). Trademarks, thus, are placed on the face grain side as markers. At one time or another most of us old-timers who learned to love the game swinging wood were told that the trademark denotes the weakest part of the bat. This is why.

(See photo to the right depicting the two different radial faces from the vantage point of the top of a bat).

According to researchers, the side of the bat hitters use is very likely a big part of the problem. Maple is not like ash. Recommendations to MLB are to place the trademark one quarter turn (90-degrees) for maple bats. Players should, in fact, be hitting with the face grain side of the bat (the top or bottom card in the deck).

This issue of wood grain overall is what has researchers most concerned right now. Besides the hitting side of the bat, researchers also believe that many maple bats break because the grain isn't straight enough. The "slope of grain" should be less than 3-degrees at the handle and taper end of the bat where most maple ruptures occur. In essence, the straighter the grain the stronger the wood. This is the main concern at the moment that researchers want to focus on and it implies a host of steps that they want addressed. To that end, the research team has made a number of recommendations that MLB is willing to institute. These are:

1. Bats must adhere to a slope of grain requirement of a bit less than 3-degrees for the handle and taper regions.
2. Bat makers must place an ink dot on the face grain side of the handle for maple and birch bats to gauge the slope angle
   
3. The hitting surface for maple and birch needs to be the face grain, not the edge grain, meaning a quarter turn (90-degrees) placement of trademarks on bats
4. Handles for maple and birch bats must be either natural or clear finished (to see the grain and ink dot)
   
5. Bat makers need a system to track maple and birch bats that leave their shops
   
6. Bat makers need to participate in an MLB sponsored workshop on engineering and grading of wood
   
7. Bat makers will be visited and audited for manufacturing processes and tracking systems
8. Audits will also be made randomly (does that sound familiar?) at ballparks
   
9. An on-going third-party certification program needs to be set up to deal with any new innovations that come along in the future

In addition, Major League Baseball has doubled its bat certification fee from $5,000 per company to $10,000. They've also doubled the liability insurance requirement from $5 million to $10 million. As you might expect, a number of quality companies, especially with our current economy, can't make this cut anymore. Also, while a typical pro maple bat might cost about $70 bought in bulk last year, now the price is at least $100 in order to manage all these new costs.

To conclude, it should be noted that the research team MLB is working with by no means feel they have gotten to the bottom of the problem with maple. Wisely, however, they are starting with a first attempt to understand what they believe to be the most salient variables -- the slope of grain, and hitting with the opposite plane of the bat than ash. There are questions as well about some maple drying processes, big barrels, narrow handles, and the possibility that maple hides cracks and fissures while ash doesn't.

It will be interesting to observe how many bats break this year, and maybe a good diversion from all the talk about past steroid transgressions by top players. After all, what is more interesting: whether A-Rod was taking steroids seven years ago; or whether his bat is going to break on the next pitch? I'll let you answer that for yourself.

See you out there on the field soon.

Next week we will delve a bit into the implications of these regulations. Until then, check out all the bat companies we've referenced at this site and find yourself the ultimate wood bat for the 2009 season.

Peacock Bat Company

The Peacock Bat Company, a relatively new bat maker based in Indiana, has just gone online. You can check them out by clicking on their logo to the right.

We've been in contact with company owner, Clay Peacock, thanks to FaceBook, and he is committed to quality ash and maple products. "I started Peacock Bats with the desire to improve the wood bat market," he says. "I don't have the desire to sell 10,000 bats a year if I'm not confident in my quality or in my product. I'm dedicated to ensuring that the bats that leave [my] shop are of a standard second to none...If I use this as my business motto, then I'm sure things will work in my favor."

Clay says they're still working on the customized ordering section of the site, but you should go check them out now and bookmark them for future reference. Peacock Bats run between $70 and $90. They've got discounts for quantity purchases as well. We like the 15% off 6-pack deal for $356.99 -- $46 less than a composite metal TPX Triton.

If anyone is looking to represent Peacock regionally, get in touch with them. Clay is looking for a few committed souls.

Happy New Year to all, and to all: be careful out there tonight.

New Year's Resolution: Post our master list of wood bat makers and re-sellers by the end of January.

What's In Your Bag? MaxBat Kicks Ash

Wood bats continue to grow as a trend for serious amateur players from high school through adult league. The must-attend, premier high school events run by Perfect Game are virtually all non-metal tournaments. Through their World Wood Bat Association (WWBA) group, Perfect Game hosts the National Underclass Championship and the World Championship in October every year where all the best players in the country step out in showcase mode to show what they can do with wood. And in July at the unparalleled East Cobb Baseball Complex in Marietta, Georgia, WWBA runs a series of age group tournaments with 128 teams per tournament swinging nothing but lumber.

We've noted here in the past that these games tend to be far superior in quality than metal bat tournaments. The reasons for this are obvious: metal provides players with far too many opportunities for cheap hits; and full barrel contact with trampoline power means the difference between a metal home run and a wood fly out. I've been to enough showcases and elite tournaments and heard scouts and college recruiters bemoan the use of super bats. "How do I make a judgment about whether this kid can hit?" a regional scout for the Red Sox asked another scout. The answer is, you can't. (Although, I've also talked to college coaches who say that they want to see kids hit with metal since that's what they use in NCAA competition).

All this said, amateur players who love to hit with wood are having a ball these days messing around with various bats from specialty companies. There seems to be a preponderance of maple in dugouts that I frequent. MaxBat is really picking up steam out there on local diamonds. Chase Utley, Shane Victorino, and Jimmy Rollins probably have something to do with this. But the company is also focused on the maple market and as such pay close attention to wood quality, looking to ensure straight wood grains and low moisture content. As with most top-notch bat companies, they provide a phenomenal number of options for customization. Certainly if you're after a maple bat, MaxBat is a company to check out. We like the moxy of their "Our Bats Kick Ash" campaign too (although ash bats have their merits without doubt).

It's close to Christmas now, but we really like MaxBat's special packages with multiple custom bats, plus accessories. These typically run between $200 and $350 and offer great products. There's a blemished bat package that starts at $135 for three. Check them all out here and think about the fact that you can buy a top of the line composite/metal bat for only $400.

See you on the field.

Hitting with Wood: A Preparatory Guide for Young Players

"...by virtue of the trampoline effect and lighter weight, metal gives the hitter power. With wood, the hitter has to give the bat power."

There's no question hitting with wood is different than hitting with metal. Go to a wood bat tournament and you can see lots of players swinging with their hands and upper bodies but not really turning on the ball and using the lower half of their bodies. With metal, over the years, the standard mantra has been "quick hands and bat speed." A great deal of nice contact at these wood bat tournaments by otherwise talented young players turns into ground outs and little flares to the short outfield that may or may not fall for hits.

Kids who know how to hit with wood make themselves very obvious: they load up, land soft, get the bat head into the zone aggressively and then turn on the ball driving it deep and hard (hips, gut, thighs and legs). Good contact means the ball is going to travel a long way. With wood, though, you often don't make good contact resulting in pop ups and dribblers. The hands more than ever have to be fast and true, but you also need everything else working to create power.

Hitting is a difficult art form. Good hitters have to work very hard to become masters -- especially when using wood.

So where does the young hitter begin? How do we teach young players who have learned to hit with metal how to hit with wood? Read on.

It's the hands!
I am not a baseball physicist, kineticist, or anatomy expert, but besides proper rotational technique, watching young hitters swing bats, it often seems to me that the secret to hitting with wood is hand, wrist and forearm strength. If these aren't working properly, then all the core conditioning and lower body strength in the world will be useless. Just as with tennis and squash, most young (eight-year-olds on up) baseball players do not have the proper muscle development to adequately make contact and transfer the full power of the rotating body back into the ball through their hands.

Wood bats are heavy, meaning the hitter may swing them a little slower in the beginning. They also flex and vibrate some, meaning that if the hitter's hands and wrist aren't strong, power again will be lost in energy transfer.

Young players (including teens not used to swinging with wood) need to spend a lot of time working out with wood bats and getting their hands, wrists and forearms strong. There are a number of training and conditioning tools for this, but nothing substitutes for the simple act of just swinging with wood. Below, I offer a list of a number of off-season and pre-season activities to help with this.

Fall Ball Heavy and Crazy
For kids playing fall baseball that is not tournament oriented, i.e., non-competitive or recreational leagues, whether or not others are using metal, I strongly suggest having your young hitter swing with wood exclusively. Talk to his or her coach and explain the situation. Hopefully they'll understand what you're doing. Don't bring metal to the field ever under any circumstances. Talk with your young player. Get them to understand that it's just fall ball and its all about working hard, training, and getting ready for next spring. Many regions now have wood-only fall ball leagues. Do some research. You may need to drive a bit out of your way, but you will find that leagues where kids all play with wood tend to have knowledgeable and thoughtful hitting instructors and coaches.

Buy a practice bat and a game bat
If your young player is going to swing with wood in games, get a batting practice bat that's a little bigger and heavier than their game bat. My twelve-year-old has a 29-inch, 25-ounce maple game bat and now swings a 31-inch, 29-ounce ash bat for practice. The ash bat cost us about $30. Obviously, older players would want to use bigger bats, but you get the idea.

Dry swings in October
We are not playing fall ball (due to school and community soccer schedules), but I encourage my son to go outside whenever he's been sitting in front of the TV too long and swing his bat at leaves and weeds in the yard. I've also got him understanding that he needs to make his hands tougher, so he goes out and does this without batting gloves. Even if I can convince him to go outside two or three times a week for only five minutes I know he's getting stronger.

Tee work
So many kids think tee work is boring. These are kids who are not going to get very far as hitters. We have a tee and a sock net in our backyard and all three of my boys have been known to go outside when they're frustrated or feeling grumpy to hit a few buckets of balls. The routine is to hit a bucket using a smooth and gentle swing; then to do a half bucket with one hand, then the other half with the other hand; finally, they finish up with another bucket or two of balls working on driving the ball hard and true. The older ones will also work on their inside-out swing, hitting to the opposite field, etc. Again, all of this is with a heavier wood BP bat. Sometimes they use batting gloves, sometimes not.

Soft toss
I think soft toss is the best way to work with young players learning to hit with wood. (Soft toss is basically kneeling to the side of a hitter in normal batting positioning and gently tossing the ball about waist high just out in front in the "hitting zone."). Ideally, you can do this on an empty infield if it's in the off-season. We usually have to hit in a cage because our neighborhood field is used for football from August through November. I've written about this before. Soft toss requires that the young hitter gets his or her hands to go to the ball almost as quickly as if they were hitting a pitched ball. Using a wood bat that is 30% heavier than metal and has a smaller sweet spot means that the young player has to work that much harder to really nail the ball -- which is, of course, the object of soft toss. For more on soft toss drills, go here, and here.

Front toss drills
If you have access to a pitching net, get behind it and put your young hitter through a battery of drills with their wood bat. You want to throw underhand from about twenty feet away. Start them out just swinging normally, but mix it up, have them swing with only their top hand, then their bottom hand. Work on pulling inside pitches and letting pitches away come in further to drive them to the opposite field. With wood in all of these your young player has to know that he or she is not going to be as successful as they are with metal, but they have to understand that they are working on strengthening themselves for next season.

Psychological impediments to hitting with wood
There is no question that young players need to learn proper hitting mechanics to be successful with wood. It's essential that kids see hitting successfully with wood as something that is going to take time and that requires dedication. It's also essential that they understand that they won't achieve their goals if they slip backwards and use metal because it's easier. If your kid or team is using wood in a game and decides to shift to metal because "...the game's on the line..." they won't help themselves at all learning and growing as a hitter. Sticking with wood is always a better idea in the long run.

Wanting to change
All this said, you can't force young players to put away their metal bats. You'll create resentment and maybe even foster "excuse making" by kids and parents. One thing to do with your young player is to sit down with them and go to some of the web sites I've written about in this blog and talk about how important hitting with wood is and how it will make them a better hitter. Take an hour or two and surf these websites looking for the perfect bat. As I've written, the customizing options some wood bat manufacturers offer make the purchasing experience really fun and exciting. Many of these companies also have articles and pages at their websites offering other tips and advice on Hitting with Wood.

In the end, my conclusion is that by virtue of the trampoline effect and lighter weight, metal gives the hitter power. With wood, the hitter has to give the bat power. This means everything has to be working together. But it all starts with the hands. The hands have to be strong. Working on this in the off-season even just a little will go a long way to success in the spring.

See you on the field.

Where to Shop for Wood Bats

As the wood bat craze grows, so too does the marketplace for buying wood bats. There are some great online stores with a wide selection of brands including justbats.com, prowoodbats.com, batwarehouse.com, baseballsavings.com, justwoodbats.com and slambat.com. Check out Hitting World as well for a large selection of bats, training aids, videos, etc.

Baseball-bats.net is also a great site. Not only do they offer a broad range of makes and models, but they provide visitors with a host of informational offerings including a history of baseball bats, a baseball bat online forum, and tips on how to choose the right bat. Baseball-bats.net also provides a very nice handy-dandy list of manufacturers in a database format with columns for where they're located, what types of bats they offer, links to manufacturer's websites, etc.

In addition, and proof that at least some in the retail market know this trend is for real, the latest Baseball Express catalog carries its widest array of wood bat offerings yet (some four pages!). Included in their inventory are bats made by Mizuno, Nokona, BWP, Marucci, BambooBat, Xbat, Sam Bat, DeMarini, Louisville Slugger, Mattingly, Brett Brothers, Old Hickory, CTG, Dbat, and Rawlings.

Make sure to check out these past blog entries as well: "Customizing Wood Bats: Tips from Zinger Bats," "Support Your Local Bat Company," and "The Big Boys: Just How Interested in Your Wood Purchase Are They?" All of these entries have numerous links in them to great small and large manufacturers alike.

A note of caution: I like to buy directly from bat companies and go out of my way to make contact with owners and bat masters (my term). As noted throughout this web site, the keys to a good bat are the wood and the craftsmanship. I want to feel confident that I'm giving myself the best chance at getting pro-stock wood and that when I ask for a -3 or -4 drop weight that I'm going to get what I pay for. Also, while many of the companies listed here have what seems like a large selection, there are dozens of other bat makes out there (many of which are listed in articles at this web site) that you may want to take a look at as well, including: Tom Cat Bats, Chesapeake Thunder, Bull Dog Bats (specializing in vintage bat remakes), and The Minnesota Bat Company. (makers of the Granite Bat).

However, buying from one of the retail outlets listed above doesn't necessarily mean you aren't going to get a nice bat. Usually they have a quick turnaround time and their selection allows you to do more comparative shopping. Plus, because they buy in bulk, their prices are often very reasonable.

All in all, wherever you shop, remember that you vote first in this world with your dollars. Supporting the wood bat industry is a vote for real baseball. Baseball Express is selling a t-shirt in their catalog that says: "All Talent, All Work, All Natural." To that I would add "All Wood."

Photos courtesy of: Baseball Express

Customizing Wood Bats: Tips from Zinger Bats

One thing is certain: you can't customize a metal bat. Yes, it's evenly balanced, has a state-of-the-art handle wrap, flashy colors, a big sweet spot, and is made out of high-tech materials, but if you want a flared knob, a narrower handle, a heavier barrel, or you want to name your metal bat, forget it. You pay your $300 or more and you take it or leave it. Will you hit better with it? According to "Don't Take My Bat Away," no. But we know that's not true. Metal bats are certainly more nasty than wood bats. But if you're playing the real game and you're a serious hitter, there are so many virtues to the wood bat buying experience that mass-produced metal can seem like shopping for laundry detergent or frozen pizza.

Traditional wood bats come in so many sizes, shapes, wood types, and colors the discerning player can go online and have a blast figuring out the perfect specs for his or her next bat purchase. You can often select barrel and handle widths down to a thirty-second of an inch, and you can even have your signature laser-burned onto your bat just like the pros.

Xbat is the first company I ever found (back in 2002) that let you customize colors, shape, etc. plus allowed you to brand the bat with a special signature or name -- even a flag. There are many companies out there now that let you do virtually anything to create your own bat. Some of the better website offerings are run by Marucci, Xbat, Superior Bat Company, Talbot Turnings, and Zinger Bats.

An up-and-coming bat company, Zinger Bats offers a very straightforward array of customizing options for personalizing bats. Zinger is located in Montreal, Canada -- close to the source of a lot of great maple. Company president, Fred Leiberman, takes pride in his company's ability to offer high-quality products exactly to spec for their customers. When Leiberman and his partner bought the company last year the business came with a $160,000 state-of-the-art computerized lathe manufactured in Spain. They also purchased a $30,000 laser burner and high-tech sanding equipment as well.

Zinger is making in-roads these days with the pros. A number of players on the Florida Marlins swing their bats including Miguel Cabrera and Dan Uggla. Bobby Abreu, Carlos Pena, and now even Jason Giambi use Zingers. Their bats are in the hands of numerous players in the minors as well. And at their website they list other great players who have ordered bats like Barry Bonds, Vladimir Guerrero, Miguel Tejada, Sammy Sosa, Maglio Ordonez, and Khalil Greene.

The Zinger Bat customization process is more basic and down to earth than many of their competitors, but Leiberman wants his customers to know that the most important elements to bat making are in their guarantees. "Bat buyers need to be careful," he notes. "There are a lot of companies that let you choose the length of your bat, but they don't guarantee weights. Good companies will always let you choose your weight, and somewhere on their websites they'll tell you that weights are guaranteed."

Another factor in your search for bat excellence is whether or not the company you're buying from makes their own bats or has an OEM do the manufacturing. There's nothing wrong per se with a reseller, especially if they work closely with the OEM on specifications and quality control, but Leiberman points out that the customer is still two steps away from the person turning the wood. "People need to ask that question when they go online, or even call up the company: do you make the bats right there or do you have someone else ship them to you for resale?"

Indeed, bat connoissieurs (i.e., serious hitters) will tell you that if you put in an order for a dozen bats at the beginning of the season with companies that don't guarantee weights, your bats can vary by as much as three to four ounces from each other. "It's all in the wood," says Leiberman. "Only about a third of the wood billets we buy are good enough for our pro-stock bats." Besides guaranteeing weights, Zinger also allows their customers to choose lengths down to the half-inch.

The best thing about the Zinger experience is that they've done their homework. Zinger offers a number of models (nearly 30) that are variations on some of most popular bat models over the years. At their site their offerings break down as follows: big barrel, fungo/trainer, pro-stock, and teen bats (a line of youth bats will be coming soon). The main issues that buyers need to be aware of are exact balance, knob size, barrel size, handle size and color. Zinger keeps the customization process simple and allows customers to choose wood type, length, weight, colors, and whether the bat has a cupped end or not. They also provide engraving as part of their price (most companies add a fee for engraving).

Economics?
Good metal bats tend to run in the price range of $150-$250 for Little League level to $300-$380 for teen players on up.

A quality wood bat -- i.e., one made of superior maple, ash or what have you (birch, bamboo, hickory -- there are even oak bats out there if you look), with guaranteed weights -- will cost anywhere from $50 - $100, depending upon the factors discussed above. The math is simple enough. You can get a top-flight company like Zinger Bat to tailor your bat to exact specifications for around $110. That means you can buy three perfect wood bats designed by you the hitter, plus go out and get yourself a bat for BP that's maybe a bit heavier and tougher so that you can keep beefing up your hitting muscles all for the price of an assembly line metal Exo, Stealth or Rush.

Is an amateur player going to break all three bats in a season? Who knows. Vibrations will break down wood fibers over time. But most hitting instructors will tell you that if you're getting the barrel on the ball it's pretty hard to break a quality bat in the first 100 at-bats. And certainly, younger players facing slower pitching are a lot less likely to have problems with breakage. As you move up the ladder to the elite levels where batters face elite pitchers, breakage can become an issue. But using a separate BP bat can help out with that problem.

"It's very true that we don't sell cheap bats," say Leiberman. "I don't see how anyone can stay in business if they don't take pride in the wood they use. We only select 20-inch straight grain for our pro-stock." Indeed, while a standard, non-customized Zinger Bat can be purchased for around $65 through re-sellers (Zinger has a sale going on right now at their website offering their X-71 model for $45 plus shipping), a fully customized, maple bat with engraving, and perfected length and weight, using guaranteed pro-stock wood can top out at a bit more than $100.

Should you pay for this kind of quality? "What's a home run worth?" quips Leiberman.

The Big Boys: Just How Interested in Your Wood Purchase Are They?

Small wood bat companies are as American as apple pie (and as Canadian as maple trees) -- see my entry, "Support Your Local Wood Bat Company." But the majority of bats sold in the Americas (wood and metal) are produced and marketed by the companies whose products you always find in your local sports outlets: Louisville Slugger, Rawlings, DeMarini (Wilson Sporting Goods), Nike, Easton, etc.

How committed are these companies to wood? DeMarini, the company that gave us multi-walled aluminum bats, carries two composite wood bat models ($130 a pop); Easton carries a line of six northern white ash and three maple models; and Rawlings puts out about twenty products under their "Big Stick" moniker -- a few maple offerings, but mostly northern white ash. Mizuno also carries a line of wood bats (at reasonable consumer prices), including several youth models. And Nokona's surprisingly broad range of products, while not cheap, have certainly gained a great deal of attention since Vladimir Guerrero won the 2007 Home Run Derby swinging a Nokona Wrecking Crew 271.

But by far the biggest and most influential company in the bat world is Hillerich & Bradsby, who trade under the name Louisville Slugger. 60% of major league players use their products. They carry 50 models for the general baseball consumer. The company has noted that while they sell about 90,000 wood bats to professionals annually, they sell 660,000 to amateur and youth players. H&B own their own lumber supply in the forests of Pennsylvania and New York and up until a few years ago supplied much of the wood to all bat makers in the country.

Besides their consumer selections, they also carry a huge line of 150 different models for professionals players. You can go to their pro homepage, but you can't get inside without an Association of Professional Baseball Players of America ID number. H&B uses their best wood for the pros, but they now carry two special models for consumers, Derek Jeter's P72 Black-Smith (ash) and Ken Griffey's C271 Black (maple) that they guarantee is pro quality.

So what makes the most sense? Buy your bats from a big company like Rawlings (who has about 25% of the pro market) or Hillerich & Bradsby? Lots of amateur players are crossing over to wood using DeMarini's composite bats. Nokona and Mizuno, unlike other big sporting goods associations, do not seem to have invested in metal bats at all. I like their wood offerings and hear good things about them from kids out on the field.

No matter what, the search for just the right bat should not be limited by a trip to Dick's or Sports Authority. In many cases the smaller companies like BWP Bats, Zinger Bats, Superior Bat Company, Dbats, XBats, HBats, Badger Bat Company, and NYStix offer excellent customized product at better prices than retail chains.

There are so many variables that go into making bats: barrel size, wood type, handle diameter, length, swing weight, balance point, finish, the size of the knob. It's probably not very smart to want to swing the same bat as one's favorite players. You need to experiment, and you need to take your time. One good thing about wood for today's serious player is that you can buy four or five nice bats for less than the cost of one metal Stealth™ or Exo™. This is true for Little Leaguers too. Any bat company worth their beans makes several different models for younger players. There's no question that wood will feel different when you first start using it. You're going from a -12 to a -3 or -4. The bat will weigh 26-ounces or so vs. 19-ounces. But over time you'll start to understand what the older kids do: that it's all about what feels right to you.

My Conclusion
I had thought that I would do a hard core critique of the corporate bat companies out there since most of them carry metal units too and spend most of their marketing dollars on these. Some of these companies have also brought a lawsuit against the city of New York trying to stop the NYC high school metal bat ban. I'm not sure about the quality of wood many of these big companies are using -- at least for their amateur customers. I'm not sure how committed most of them are to marketing their wood bats. It seems clear, though, that Hillerich & Bradsby are indeed committed and that we should all be indebted to them (even if they are helping fund the fight against the NYC metal bat ban). Louisville Sluggers are the standards by which all bats must be judged. They have more history, more R&D experience, and certainly more satisfied customers than any other company out there. Rawlings, too, B&H's biggest competitor, may be looking to protect their share of the metal market, but there are many young players happy to swing their Big Sticks.

However, I still also heartily recommend investing in small and local bat makers. Not all of these companies turn their own bats, but they want to see happy customers and they take pride in their offerings. If you're a serious player (or a parent serious about your child's play), take some time to go out of your way at baseball tournaments and the batting cages to talk to people swinging lumber with strange branding. You never know what you're going to learn.

Some of the finest youth hitting I've ever seen came off the early model version of Akadema's Amish-543 back in 2002. That bat was turned in Amish country about 70 miles from our home here in Philadelphia. We learned about Akadema at our local indoor baseball club. The way the ball jumped off that bat was astounding. I watched my 14-year-old son, Sam (now 19) hit a 360-foot shot to straightaway center in his first at-bat in 8th grade (he had decided he would see what he could do at the plate with wood). The kid went on a tear for three games. Then, in a tight contest as he stood in the on-deck circle his coach walked up to him, took the A-543 out of his hands and said, "You're hitting with metal from here on out." Sam didn't hit with such zest for the rest of the season. Bats are funny. They have this way of getting into our brains and our souls.

See you on the field...

Don't Worry, They Won't Leave

Two more articles detailing a press conference of sorts given by the Little League and Don't Take My Bat Away spokesperson, Ari Fleischer.

Little League Hit By Wood Bat Debate (MLB.com)

Wood vs. Metal Debate Making Some Batty (Staten Island Live.com)

also, I just found this one as well:

Ex-Whitehouse Spokesman Joins Debate Over Metal Bats (NY Times)

The contention from Little League's point of view is that returning to wood bats means that kids will leave baseball for lacrosse, soccer, and video games. They offer no evidence.

They also don't seem to understand how dumb they sound. Baseball's hey-day, especially Little League's, was in the '50s and '60s where everyone played with wood bats. Little League baseball's membership rolls have been dwindling since at least the '90s.

There's no question there is an adjustment period for kids when they move to wood, but I'd say in less than a year the weight differential wouldn't mean a thing. In fact, it's pretty clear to me that the wood bat movement is growing and that Legion, Little League, and other organizations are going to lose out to independent summer and fall wood bat leagues. Imagine how much stronger kids might get swinging bats that weigh almost two pounds instead of ones that weigh barely one pound three ounces.

One last thing: on the issue of whether or not Little League can play with metal at Williamsport next year: I would suggest a waiver from PA's rules if LL were willing the following year to try an all-wood tournament. I guarantee more excitement and press coverage!

Click here to go to the Fleischer press conference.

Thanks to Joe Domalewski for keeping me up to date on things and sending article references.

Amateur Baseball Playing Chicken?

An article in the New York Sun came out this week profiling Ari Fleischer, once President Bush's press secretary, and his new clients -- Don't Take My Bat Away (DTMBA). The article, entitled "Ex-Whitehouse Spokesman New Voice for Metal Bats," informs us that Fleischer sat on the bench on his high school team, plays adult level baseball, and went from hitting .300 in his old Virginia metal bat league to .200 for his new wood bat league team in West Chester County, New York.

Obviously, Mr. Fleischer needs to have someone like Mike Epstein help him with his mechanics -- or, possibly, he isn't doing enough Tee work.

I also learned of a second news story yesterday. Apparently, Little League International has decided to flex a little muscle. They have essentially threatened the state of Pennsylvania (a bill was introduced this summer by PA state representative Mike Carroll banning non-wood bats by players under the age of 18) with the notion that they would have to move the Little League World Series to a state that hasn't banned metal bats. I say "threatened" here because it's not clear to me what else Stephen Keener, the president of Little League, is doing when he makes a public statement like: "A metal bat ban would make it very difficult to play the World Series here." According to the newspaper account, he declined to elaborate on what he meant.

It continues to baffle me that essentially every major baseball association in North America is protecting the right to play with metal. Over the years this issue has come up again and again in these association's rules committees and year after year the associations steer clear of doing much to acknowledge that playing with wood might not be such a bad thing -- especially for senior level players from 13 and up.

What would really be nice to see happen is that college baseball and American Legion take the bull by the horns and say: "You know what? We've got no leg to stand on here. We made a mistake. There's absolutely no reason that these boys, everyone of whom has a dream of someday being a major leaguer, shouldn't go back to wood. Some of them may be upset, but you know, they're good at being upset. They get upset with umpires all the time. They can handle it. Let's go back to wood for awhile. Let's give it five years. We'll just play with wood for five years and see how we feel after that."

It would be nice if high school and Little League programs followed suit as well. Pretty much every hitting instructor worth his beans will tell you that kids don't learn to hit properly when they use metal.

Polling parents and coaches would be a good idea too. I have suggested to Mr. Keener that Little League International do some serious, hardcore opinion research and focus group studies. What if they found that parents didn't like the idea of their kids pitching to $389 bats designed to maximize performance? What if the majority of coaches said that they'd rather teach kids to play the game the way it's supposed to be played?

The point is that this whole issue is turning into a Mexican standoff -- or maybe a game of chicken. The safety issue is not as simple as these associations make it out to be. Data is very scarce, engineering tests are limited, and there is no question that metal bats let kids hit balls harder and farther. That's why Ari Fleischer's batting average has dropped. The information we have is mushy at best, and yet we go to games and we can see the difference. We have a conundrum here. This is why elected officials feel the need to step in.

Those of us who passionately believe that wood bats are the only way to play baseball are being called "traditionalists" and "purists." But that's not all we are. We love this game because it's so darned hard to play. We don't like to see cheap home runs and bloop singles that should be foul balls or outs. And we certainly don't like the idea that pitchers and charging third basemen are risking their lives just so the game can be "more fun."

So I call on the baseball associations to open their minds and recognize that this great game is bigger than they are and more important than anyone's pride or sense that they know better than their members, coaches, and players. We should all be troubled by this face off. Let's hope as the season draws to a close, cooler heads prevail and the baseball world remembers no matter how much things change, North America's pastime has always been based on tradition, common sense, and a passion for playing the game the right way.

As a good friend and a great coach always says: "Baseball used to just be baseball..."

See you out there.

Support Your Local Wood Bat Company

I've spent the past week putting together a list of all the small wood bat companies I can find in North America. I know I'm not done with my research, but already I have identified over 75 small companies with web sites. Besides the few commonly known companies like Old Hickory, Sam Bat, D-Bat, M-Powered Baseball, and The Marruci Bat Company, there are companies like Rock Bats, Bayou Bat Company, Hoosier Bat Company, The Northern Mash Baseball Company, and Talbot Turnings (their bats are pictured here). The list goes on and on. Most of these companies work with both Ash and Hard Maple. Some, like Barnstable Bat, located in Cape Cod, also make Birch bats. Many can customize their products for you. And many of these bat masters are true craftsmen, creating beautiful works of art.

What's really important to keep in mind here is that virtually all of these companies are small businesses run by dedicated and passionate entrepreneurs who love the game of baseball for all the right reasons. Companies hail from almost every state in the union. A number of top companies can also be found next door in Canada (Zinger Bats, Sam Bat, Prairie Sticks, KR3 Bats, and Mash Bat in particular). The typical quality maple bat runs in price between $60 and $80. High-end bats can cost as much as $100 or more. There are usually discounts for bulk purchases.

Another obvious point is that most of these companies depend upon skilled manual labor and the kind of work ethic that ensures quality with every product turned out.

If anyone is interested, I am considering putting my database of bat companies into an online format with a geographic interface. I want to strongly suggest that players consider shopping regionally and locally for their bats. Supporting businesses in your "neck of the woods" should be the first tenet of a free market system. And if you find a product you like, I'd suggest trying to contact the company and maybe even go meet the bat masters who make your favorite stick. If you're going to hit home runs, you ought to be able to look in the eyes of the person who made your bat for you and thank them...

Next up - The Big Boys: Just How Interested in Your Wood Purchases Are They?

See you on the field.

Little League Makes the Case for Metal

The op-ed, below, came out during the first week of August 2007. After you read it, I offer a letter that I sent Mr. Keener in response.






Don't knock non-wood bats

A ban would not add to safety, or fun, of amateur baseball.

By Stephen D. Keener, President and CEO of Little League International

At amateur baseball games, sentimentalists may listen for the "crack of the bat," but for a generation they have heard the distinctive ping of a non-wood bat. Tradition aside, that's not a bad thing.

Still, that ping seems to be on the minds of some politicians in New Jersey, New York and now Pennsylvania who are questioning the safety of non-wood bats. They believe that the ball flies off them faster and puts fielders at greater risk. They want to outlaw non-wood bats and require wooden bats, which they think would make the game safer.

At Little League International, where I am president and chief executive officer, we welcome this concern for kids. But in this case, the facts about non-wood bats and safety show that banning them would not make baseball safer, but could make it less fun. That's why we and nearly every other baseball organization in America oppose government bans on non-wood bats.

Here's why:

First, injuries from batted balls are dropping in Little League even though aluminum bat use is widespread. Injuries to pitchers, the closest fielders in front of the plate and the most vulnerable to hard-hit balls, are way down - from 145 in 1992 to 26 in 2004, thanks to standards put in place by bat manufacturers with Little League assistance. And they have stayed low ever since. Even better, no fatalities from batted balls in Little League have been reported since 1973. Before then, eight pitchers were tragically killed by hit balls: six from wood bats, two from aluminum.

Second, youth baseball organizations and bat makers have worked together since the early 1990s to develop and regulate non-wood bats so that balls hit with either type of bat have similar exit speeds. Together, we have developed the "bat performance factor" (BPF) rating, which is printed on every new bat sold. Little League even sets specific BPF limits. In short, we've improved the bats to ensure that they are safe and fun.

Third, our nation's top safety enforcement agency - the Consumer Product Safety Commission - researched this issue and said in 2002 that available incident data were not sufficient to indicate that non-wood bats may pose an unreasonable risk of injury. The commission concluded that a mandatory standard was not necessary to address perceived risks.

Finally, banning non-wood bats wouldn't make the game any safer, and it might reintroduce a risk that non-wood bats address quite well: the shattered wood bat flying into the field or bleachers. Banning non-wood bats wouldn't make the game more fun, either. Non-wood bats don't sting the hands of young players, and they have a bigger "sweet spot," helping batters them put the ball into play more often. And that's what baseball is really all about - fun and play.

We are a leader in youth sports safety. Since its first season in 1939, Little League has made safety a top goal, beginning with the introduction of the modern batting helmet in the 1950s. Over the years, our focus on safety has led to a number of innovations, rules changes and improvements that make youth baseball the safe game it is today. They include:

Eliminating the on-deck circle to reduce injuries caused by batters warming up.

Restricting head-first slides to reduce collisions.

Requiring catchers to wear masks with throat protectors.

Replacing rigid bases with bases that dislodge to reduce lower-leg injuries to sliding runners.

Mandating background checks for volunteers and those with repetitive access to players (a first for any youth sports organization).

Limiting pitch counts to reduce injuries to young pitchers (another youth baseball first).

Because of these and other steps, Little League baseball in particular, and amateur baseball in general, is one of the safest sports children can play. Football players endure high-speed collisions. Cheerleaders perform daredevil stunts and acrobatics. Basketball players throw elbows, leap into crowds, and push for position. Ice hockey, wrestling . . . pick any sport and you will find risky behavior.

Little League has worked diligently to identify and eliminate many of the risks involved in playing youth baseball. It's hard for everybody to have fun if even one person gets hurt.

We welcome the concern of anyone who wants to join us in this effort, including our elected representatives. But decisions about equipment and safety should be based on science and data, not on emotion and anecdotal evidence. We also hope government leaders trust those of us closest to the game and those who play it to continue making sure baseball is safe, while also keeping it fun.

---

Stephen D. Keener is president and chief executive officer of Little League International (www.littleleague.org), based in Williamsport, Pa.


My response...

Dear Mr. Keener:

I read your essay last week in The Philadelphia Inquirer. You may know that I published an op-ed in the Inquirer on the metal vs. wood controversy several months ago.

I have coached my three sons in youth baseball for 13 years and my middle son competes in national tournaments. For the record, I do not believe that government regulation is the way to go with any of this, but I am deeply troubled by the fact that baseball associations around the country are so dead set and even, it seems, desperate to defend the use of metal bats in a game that is one of the only things we have left connecting us to the days when this country was young and strong and growing.

I understand the argument about the relative safety of metal bats that you make. I'm not sure I fully agree (the data you site is statistical, and the samples are very limited given the changes that have occurred with bats and rules over the past decade, and there is still the reality of big strong hitters and small, slow-to-react pitchers) but more to the point, has Little League done a comprehensive survey of its members on whether they would be interested in returning to wood -- for whatever reason?

I ask this because I have yet to find someone who believes that metal alloy bats are preferable to wood in youth baseball. The only people who have any qualms about going back to wood are some players and coaches who feel that such a move would only make sense if everyone did it. All of this is in light of the performance enhancement scandals rocking the MLB. You note in your essay that baseball is meant to be fun and that taking metal out of the equation would limit that fun. Isn't it true that baseball is fun partly because it is such a challenge? Doesn't the game get its mystique and poetry from the fact that the main pieces of equipment are natural--leather, horsehide, and wood? If you talk to your members, you'll find a lot of them agreeing with these sentiments, acknowledging that wood bats are part of the game's great challenge, and that metal bats have sullied the true spirit of this bizarre and blessed American creation.

I recently returned from the 15U World Wood Bat Association Championships in East Cobb, Georgia. I have never witnessed so many exciting, thrilling, and engrossing baseball games in my life.

Two weeks earlier, my son, Jesse, was in Fort Myers at the BCS National Championships. This was a metal bat tournament, and while, apparently, it was enjoyable watching tomorrow's college and pro stars, big fly ball homers and unnaturally hard hit grounders scooting through the infield made for a number of less than challenging games for teams with bigger, stronger hitters -- my son being one of them.

With wood at East Cobb, outfielders were making over-the-shoulder and diving catches, infielders were laying out and throwing the ball off of one knee. Pitchers were able to focus on throwing quality strikes because they understood their team mates would make the plays behind them. It was marvelous. The final championship game went into extra innings as a 3-3 tie. The game was finally won on bunts, good base running, and, ultimately, a legitimate hard-hit slashing double in the gap.

Ah, baseball. There's a reason we love it so much!

I'm just curious then whether Little League International has polled its members, or is interested in polling its members. I am asking the same question of the NCAA and the American Legion. It would seem to be your duty, wouldn't it? As they say, the game is bigger than all of us. Personally, I love this game because it is very difficult to play well and because it teaches kids from 6 to 35 how to deal with overwhelming challenges. You yourself admit that metal has a bigger sweet spot, "helping batters put the ball into play more often." As a coach and someone who grew up playing with a Roberto Clemente wood bat in my neighborhood, that statement doesn't sit well with me. It very likely doesn't sit well with most of your dues paying parents either. I'm sure it wouldn't sit well with Roberto himself.

Hopefully, your organization can think a little deeper than you have so far. I would like very much to help in that process. Please consider me someone who wants nothing more than to see this game expand and grow back into what it was when we were kids.

Most sincerely,


David Biddle

Pondering Baseball's Purity

Adapted from commentary published in The Philadelphia Inquirer - May 22, 2007

Pondering baseball's purity

By David Biddle

America has become more befuddled about baseball than ever before.

In the major leagues, we just witnessed Barry Bonds breaking Henry Aaron's career home-run record. Our befuddlement, of course, comes from the problem of performance-enhancing drugs and the notion that at least some of the top players of the last decade have cheated their way to records, awards, and media attention. Acknowledging Bonds' feat has been all but impossible for many of the game's die-hard fans. The word on everyone's mind is purity.

However, a much more important battle over purity is brewing on neighborhood fields all over the country: the use of high-tech, metal-alloy bats in youth and amateur baseball. North Dakota and New York City already have mandated wood for high school play.

The New Jersey Legislature is considering "Steven's Law," which would outlaw metal bats for anyone under age 18. The law is named for Steven Domalewski, who was hit by a line drive in the chest last summer. His heart stopped, and he suffered severe brain damage from which he is still recovering.

Similar laws have been considered in Massachusetts, Illinois and Montana. Numerous leagues throughout the country have moved back to wood. Pennsylvania and New York also have bills up for considerationThe trend is clear, but so is the controversy.

The debate is over safety. But let's face it, metal or wood, baseball can be a dangerous game. Pitchers throw 5.25-ounce rock-like balls in close quarters at speeds that give batters about a half a second to react. Then batters hit balls back, often at the same or higher speeds.

The outcomes in New York City and North Dakota, along with the New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania legislation, have established somewhat surprising opposing forces. On one side are rather conservative politicians trying to regulate safety. On the other are youth- and amateur-baseball organizations worried about participation levels, and the metal-bat industry, looking to protect the $300-million-a-year revenue.

The politicians say they've seen enough and need to act. Yet, according to metal proponents, numerous injury-rate studies, from Little League International to NCAA baseball, actually show a decline in serious and life-threatening injuries over the last decade. Evidence suggests the game is safer than football, hockey, wrestling and boxing.

To anyone who spends time around Little Leaguers and high school players, there is no question that metal-alloy bats (the best of which now run nearly $400, which parents willingly shell out) outperform wood. Even though the industry voluntarily re-engineered bat technologies with specific guidelines for length-to-weight ratios and a controlled ball-exit-speed ratio supposedly equal to that of the best wood bats, any coach or cleanup hitter will tell you that returning to wood would drastically cut down on homers and batting averages.

Indeed, there's a reason the pros don't use metal-alloy Stealths and Exos: Pitchers would go out of business paying insurance premiums, and fans would think they were at a football game every time they checked the scoreboard.

All of this misses the real point: Metal bats have the same impact on the game as steroids and human growth hormones. They have turned youth baseball into something of a farce -- at least to those of us who grew up in the '40s, '50s, and '60s. Batting averages in college and high school run about 100 points higher than they did in the 1950s and 1960s. Or just take a look at scores from 2006 American Legion tournaments: 18-12, 16-15, 18-7, 17-8, 15-14.

In fact, while the media have concentrated on the battle between politicians and the bat industry, most baseball aficionados - even kids who love their alloyed averages and double-digit homers, will tell you that going back to wood will return the game to its proper level. Defense, pitching, finesse offense, and athletic talent are what the game is all about. Power has its place, but not at the expense of poetry.

I predict that youth baseball is in the process of returning completely to wood - from Tee Ball through college. All we need is one more kid with a compressed sternum or crushed skull from a 95-mile-per-hour come-backer to the mound. It will happen. What the safety studies don't tell you is that, sometimes, freshman pitchers are no match for 19-year-old team captains about to be signed by the New York Yankees or St. Louis Cardinals.

As Bonds' now ponders the notion of 800 home runs, mollify yourself with the knowledge that at least he's spent his entire career using wood. Number 800 will start with the crack of the bat, not the ping of an expensive metal trampoline.