Search for a Better Baseball Bat

      More Letters From Paradise
   Search For A Better Baseball Bat

Most,if not all, professional baseball players are using maple wood bats. Formerly bats were made of either ash or maple birch. Why the switch to maple? It is because maple bats are lighter, a greater bat speed and great impact upon contact with the ball. But this has come at a great price too. Maple bats shatter, sending slices of wood, and causing many injuries.

A two-month survey revealed that there was an average of one multiple-piece bat failure a game. The causes were poor quality slope of grain and or splits in the bat caused by excessive bending. Officials cracked down on suppliers that produce maple bats. An agreement was signed with the Major League and the Players Association that no new players would be allowed to use low-density maple bats. Major leaguers who predated the agreement are permitted to use them. The agreement expires this December.

Three examples of injuries caused by maple bats will suffice. A catcher for the Milwaukee Brewers was hit in his mask by a broken bat, and he was lucky because it was the large end. A more serious case was when a player for the Chicago Cubs, running from third base, was impaled just inches from his heart with a slice from a broken bat. And in June 2005, a woman while leaning down to help her son with his hot dog, was clubbed by a piece of a broken bat.

But now there is some hope. Kent "Hawk" Williamson of Girard, Pennsylvania has received a patent for his new bat. It includes a special rubber handle and all-purpose natural thread inside the bat from below the label to the knob, that prevents the wood from flying apart. The grip also helps hold the bat t together. Williamson mixes tiny pieces of rubber with a high-quality epoxy resin to produce the grip.

The new bat has, and is undergoing testing in order for it to be accepted, and used by the major league. Meanwhile Williamson continues perfecting his bat and looking for investors.

All the above information came from an excellent story written by Jon Saraceno in Sports section of USA Today,Monday August 15 2016.
       Aloha
       Grant