Wooden Versus Aluminum Baseball Bats
injury to the pitcher's arm. Young pitchers are starting to develop curve balls and other breaking pitches for the reason that the aluminum bat makes it easier for the batter to hit a fastball. Their bodies are not developed enough to begin throwing pitches that involve a snap in a wrist or elbow. These young players think that the regular straight fastball is not enough, because the hitters are capable of hitting the fastball with the high-powered aluminum bat. This observable fact is the direct result of many injuries in young pitchers arms that could be career ending. "Aluminum bats eliminate talented yet underdeveloped pitchers from the system" (Research 9).
Researchers in Japan have observed an additional problem with the aluminum bat. The resounding ping of the aluminum bat in Japan is actually causing hearing loss. The Japanese-made bats are typically ten to twenty decibels higher than that of an American-made bat. The Japanese correlate performance with sound. The aluminum bats are hollow and the typical American-made model has a plastic plug at the end of its barrel or sound-damping foam inside. The Japanese models generally have aluminum ends and no sound-damping foam. These bats can produce sounds as loud as ninety-six decibels. To protect players, umpires, and fans, the Japanese High School Baseball Federation has just approved rules barring the use of any bat that produces a noise louder than ninety-two decibels ("Ping!").
"The aluminum bat is ruining the game, not the ball!" (Research). In a current study with an official high school baseball, an official NCAA baseball and a Major League baseball, the exit velocities were comparable. The only difference found was in the core of some professional baseballs. Major League baseball uses balls that have a cork and rubber composite center. Therefore, they have a higher elasticity and achieve a higher exit velocity. The balls are better than they used to be, but the hitters are not any better than those in the past (Robinson). The high school and NCAA baseballs both have solid cork centers, which are slightly denser than rubber centers. This "juiced" ball does not have a big enough impact to be any more dangerous than a regulation ball. Therefore, a change in the baseball will not alleviate the risk of injury.
In the 155 years of baseball, the development of the aluminum bat has been the only major change that has altered the way the game is played. In the 1970's, bats made from tubes of aluminum began to appear. "These tubes are machine-made to vary the wall thickness and the diameter, and produce bats that are light, strong, and hollow, as opposed to the solid wooden bats" (Tools 1). When aluminum bats initially appeared in amateur baseball the bat was just an aluminum replica of a wooden bat. The only difference was that they were more durable and therefore cheaper to use. It would not be long before manufacturers and players discovered that there were other differences as well (Tools 1).
Aluminum [next page]