Dangerous Projectiles

Nick Blackburn of the Twins was felled on Sunday by a line drive off the bat of Yankee Bobby Abreu, who's enough of a nice guy to show obvious distress as he ran to first. It's one of the greatest fears of any pitcher, as few have the instincts to get out of the way of a ball traveling 100+ MPH from fifty-five feet away (recall that the pitcher typically lands much closer to the plate than the sixty feet, six inches from the rubber to the plate).

Practically every game has its share of near-misses, with balls screaming past pitcher's legs, arms and faces, and giving the lie to any misbegotten notions that baseball is a game for sissies. Unlike football, hockey, lacrosse, or most other contact sports, baseball offers few protections to its players. Catchers get to be armored, home plate umps a little less so, and batters (plus this year, base coaches) can only don a helmet that still leaves their face exposed, and perhaps add a guard to previously injured elbows or shins.

Really, this is about the best that we can do to protect the batter from a thrown ball, and I'm not suggesting that pitchers wear helmets or hockey facemasks, nor should batters be allowed in up-armor themselves like a vulnerable Humveee. Nor does any other remedy make sense: softening the ball, moving the mound back, or changing to a kind of bat that rebounds less. Facing a pitched or hit baseball at close range is just one of those things that ballplayers must endure. Perhaps we can institute a higher level of medical insurance for pitchers, or hazard pay based on the number of pitches they throw, or comebackers that whizz past them.

One thing we can change, however, is the threat represented by the new maple bats, which tend to splinter and shatter into shards that fly around the infield like the poison darts Indiana Jones is always so adept at dodging. I can still recall when commentators would marvel at the rare sight of a bat shard from a broken ash bat jammed into the ground, and the cameraman would pull in for a tight shot of if. Now such shrapnel is an everyday occurrence, and most commentators have begun to remark on the danger of maple bat fragments, a growing chorus to which I gladly add my voice.

Maple bats gained popularity when Bonds used them in his 2001 73-homer season, when players thought the harder wood was his secret to success (instead of, perhaps, harder drugs). Once considered too heavy to make a good bat, maple is now a viable substance because of new drying technologies. It's considered harder and more durable, but that durability comes at a price: the awful shrapnel created when the bat finally gives way.

I've mentioned in another blog that we should phase out wooden bats altogether, citing issues of sustainability and wood quality, but barring such an unlikely occurrence, baseball hould at least review its hidebound (woodbound?) notions of what bats can be made of. Probably the best solution, in terms of durability, sustainability, and safety is bamboo. It grows faster than regular wood--part of the reason that ash bats break more often is because the harder old-growth wood that makes the best bats has all but disappeared--and has the tensile strength of steel. To be made into a bat, it is pressed into a composite, the element that draws the disapproval of major league baseball. Rule 1.10 states that "The bat shall be one piece of solid wood." But it continues by saying that: "No laminated or experimental bats shall be used in a professional game (either championship season or exhibition games) until the manufacturer has secured approval from the Rules Committee of his design and methods of manufacture."

I think it's time for the Rules Committee to take a look at bamboo bats. Technology allows for a bat that's not only more durable and made of sustainable materials, it could mimic the behavior of ash or maple. These bats are already in use in Little Leagues, as well as colleges and high schools—some manufacturers even offer a 30-day breakage guarantee, an amazing warranty in an era when we sometimes see players go through two or more ash bats in a single plate appearance.

At the very least, these bats ought to be tried at some of the lower minor leagues, to see how well they hold up and whether they create the same sort of flying debris that traditional bats do. Most importantly, they should be tested to conform to the same characteristics as ash and maple bats, so that we can be sure they aren't affecting the game for the worse or better. But these are minor elements easily overcome with study and manufacture and shouldn't stand as roadblocks.

In an era when we're all learning to adjust to make our lives safer and more sustainable, MLB should be leading the way instead of dragging its feet. It's amazing to me that there's such an outcry for high-tech additions like instant replay, while other more important and essential elements like bamboo bats are ignored. Sadly, it may take a serious injury, like the one that Nick Blackburn narrowly avoided from a ball, to get owners and management to wake up and realize that bats--and maple ones in particular--represent a short- and long-term threat to players and the planet, and that the time for change is long overdue.