Wooden Versus Aluminum Baseball Bats
with a fiber-resin material covering the core and an ash wooden cover. "The composite bat does not have a higher exit velocity than that of a regular ash wooden bat" (Robinson). The only advantage of a composite bat is to increase the durability of a wooden bat. Therefore, the purpose of the composite bat is to save money. While a composite bat costs two to three times more than a regular ash bat, the composite bat will last three to four times longer. "The Baum Bat is the ultimate wooden bat. It maintains the feel and consistency of the traditional wooden bat while outlasting it hundreds of times over" (Robinson). However, the composite bat does not have an effect on the power of the bat.
Two questions that continue to surface in the controversy are: Has the game changed? Has the aluminum bat changed the game of baseball? The first argument deals with the physical properties of the aluminum bat. The aluminum bat does not allow a player to show his maximum skill, since the aluminum acts as a handicap for the player. "The integrity of the game has been smashed…it is much like undoing all of the natural, required discipline and training necessary to become a master at one's craft" (Research). In the most recent years in the NCAA the hitting statistics are at an all time high. The batting average, the number of runs scored per game, and number of home runs per game all surpass every season in the history of the NCAA (Research). Is this due to the talent that is coming to the NCAA? Are the college athletes of this era better than those of past eras? No, the players of this era have better equipment. The records do not hold true to the records set in the early days of the NCAA.
This argument brings up another popular question: Should aluminum bats be used? At one point in the 1999 NCAA season, it was decided that aluminum bats would be banned for the following year. This decision got Jim Easton in an uproar. Jim Easton is the president of Easton sporting goods, one of the top two aluminum bat makers. There has been so much money put into developing aluminum bats that the new rule would ruin Easton and other aluminum bat makers. After a few battles in court, NCAA and Easton came to a compromise. The new rule states that the bat weight must be no more than three ounces less than the bat length. This first rule is only a small step in a big process (Reagan). There will be more limitations placed on aluminum bats in the approaching years.
Aluminum bats perform better than wooden bats. Although the aluminum bat is more durable and more powerful, it is also proven to be more dangerous. While the aluminum bat is more dangerous than a wooden bat, there is still a danger in using a wooden bat. Baseball began with a wooden [next page]