It is time to go back to the time when college baseball players were swinging wooden bats -metal bats are actually counter-productive for the majority of players’ goals.
Nuclear Bats Became a Problem
Since back in 1973, batters at the collegiate level have been swinging metal bats. This became an issue in the later parts of the 2000s, when the bats had become so powerful, and the athletes were so strong, that it became dangerous for defenders to even attempt fielding certain batted balls, thanks to how high their exit velocities were.
Mike Rooney, former baseball coach at ASU and current college baseball analyst for ESPN, stated that the home run became very prevalent during this time, and it seemed like all hitters could create them. This made watching the games, and betting on them in the same way that punters who enjoy live AFL betting do now, a lot less fun! Rooney went on to say, however, that, thanks to BBCOR, using metal bats is now more comparable to using bats made of wood.
Tackling the Nuclear Bat Issue
In an effort to battle these nuclear bats, baseball organisations for all the age groups, including the NCAA, started forcing players to use bats that had been regulated with approved BBCOR seals.
Batted Ball Coefficient for Restitution, BBCOR, is designed to make metal bats perform more like wooden ones. They limit the amount of energy which is transferred between the ball and the bat, and cut down on the ludicrous exit velocities.
Cut Out the Metal Bat Entirely
For college-level baseball players, it seems like it would be more beneficial to simply cut out metal bats altogether. It would benefit them greatly to convert to wooden bats instead, as they are certainly not looking to hark back to childhood games, instead they are moving forward. Almost all the best high school baseball prospects in America swing wooden bats when it comes to their high-profile tournaments and the showcases for scouts of either college baseball or the MLB draft. Most of them only use metal bats when they are forced to do so during high school games. This makes having them swinging metal bats in their college years totally counter-productive if the players’ goals are going pro.
The Major League Teams Use Wood
Any high school players that gets drafted or signed up with one of the major league teams will swing wooden bats from that point on during their career. These players could be as young as 17 and have to swing wooden bats, but their college-going counterparts are using metal? For the most part, players using metal bats are going to perform better than if they are using a wooden bat, too, and this could serve to inflate player statistics.
If the NCAA could find a way to make up for the possible lack of revenue that would ensue if no more metal bat companies were used, then the switch to wooden bats is a no-brainer! While there may be fewer home runs if this change is undertaken, the crack of wood is always better than the clang of metal, and the players really would benefit.
