“Going Yard” Bat Blog

At high schools and colleges across the nation, the debate about aluminum bat safety continues. Play Ball USA and Ron Cacini offer helpful words in this video. Cacini doesn’t try to convince you of an answer to the alumnium vs. wood question. Instead, he explains that it’s proper technique, bat weight, and bat length, that will help boost safety for those whose leagues use aluminum bats. He gives a general explanation of bat exit speed ratio. Cacini doesn’t talk much about wood bats, so it does have an air of advocating for aluminum.

For a casual video shoot in a batting cage, the former Houston farmhand really has a decent swing.

Last year, Major League Baseball started its investigation into the abundance of broken bats in recent years. At the time, a three-week count of broken bats in Major-League games showed about one shattered bat per game. After this first week of the regular season, it doesn’t look like the rate is coming down. Sure, maybe it’s the cold weather, but it seems like bats are breaking everywhere again. We’ve pretty much accepted it as part of the game. But just because we’re used to it doesn’t mean it’s safe.

Recalling last year’s incidents of fans and professionals getting hit in the head (Pittsburgh Pirate coach Don Long, umpire Brian O’Nora, and Dodger fan Susan Rhodes, who recovered from severe injuries after she was hit by a broken bat off Todd Helton), Ward Dill found a solution: the Radial Bat. It takes twelve wedges of wood and an adhesive, and it’s not likely to be adopted by pro ball. But it’s a step toward safety, clamped under 36,000 pounds of pressure. At $100 to $150 each, Dill’s Radial Bat is still pricey. The good news is, that if smart inventors’ minds like Dill’s are on the job, baseball may get the solution it needs for the broken bat blues.

A New Jersey inventor says he has come up with a way to prevent the shattered bats that are becoming an increasing problem in MLB.

The bat is made from 12 wedges that are combined with adhesive and clamping pressure. The result is that the outside of each wedge has a tight grain surface, guaranteeing the best hitting surface at every spot on the bat.

Read the whole story here

MLB.com has an interesting article about the research into the continued issues related to maple bats shattering.

The committee said on Tuesday that nearly 1,700 shattered bats were collected from July 2 to this past Sunday for physical analysis….wo Wisconsin-based entities are reviewing wood-quality issues: The USDA Forest Service’s Products Laboratory — the federal government’s primary research facility for wood products — and Timberco, Inc., an independent accredited certification and testing agency for structural and nonstructural wood products.