Tuesday, May. 13, 2008

Popular maple bats a major hazard when broken

It looked and sounded like a routine hard-hit line drive toward shortstop, struck by a member of the Modesto Nuts during a game last Tuesday against Bakersfield.

But half the bat — the barrel — went screaming end-over-end in the other direction. It was roughly a 24-inch, 26-ounce pointed projectile, hurtling toward a group of eight children sitting in the front row at John Thurman Field.

Fortunately, the bat was cradled by the netting that surrounds the seating area behind home plate. So many fans followed the flight of the bat, as evidenced by their collective gasp and sigh when it found the net, they failed to notice the ball flying into left-center field for a single.

Broken-bat scenes have become increasingly common at all levels of professional baseball — a rise that parallels the increase in popularity of the maple bat. Hardly a game goes by, whether on television or in the California League, in which at least one broken maple bat doesn't leave its pointed remains sticking in the infield grass.

To put it simply, traditional ash bats crack. Maple bats explode, and over the last six years, maple has become the preferred wood of Major League Baseball. Just last year, it surpassed ash for the first time, according to MLB.com, and this season 60 percent of all major leaguers are swinging maple.

There's a reason. Maple bats provide a harder hitting surface than ash bats and don't visibly wear down with use, as do ash bats.

But therein rests the danger, and safety issue. When an ash bat wears, the barrel gets taped up and it's thrown into use as a batting practice bat. Maple bats crack on the inside, where the wear is hidden — unknown until the bat gives up its structural integrity on impact, often in a violent manner.

"A bat is meant to last only so long," said Modesto Nuts catcher Michael McKenry, who has a contract to use bats supplied by a maple bat company. "Both will break if you hit them on the wrong spot. All in all, maple is a better bat that will last longer in general."

Holding the remains

McKenry had an interesting maple moment Saturday, when he made solid contact with a pitch and drove it to the warning track in left field. As he ran toward first base, he tossed aside an eight-inch piece of kindling. The rest of the bat went flying toward third base like an airborne medieval lance.

"I hit that ball well, right on the barrel," McKenry said. "It must have been cracked on the inside."

The safety issue, however, isn't which bat is more durable, it's how the bats react when they're broken. And the frequency in which maple bats have sent daggers of wood shooting into the infield or — worse — the crowd has been so great it's been under study by Major League Baseball for at least four years.

According to Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports, MLB is so concerned with the issue of exploding maple bats that it had negotiators bring up the idea of banning them during 2006 collective bargaining agreement negotiations.

Last week, an MLB team executive confirmed all teams have been asked to chart every broken bat and report back with the type of bat used and the spray pattern of its remains.

Near disaster

No one has to convince Pittsburgh Pirates coach Don Long about the danger of exploding maple. On April 15, while standing in the dugout at Dodger Stadium, Long was following the flight of a double to right field off the bat of Pirate Nate McLouth.

Long didn't hear the maple bat break, and he didn't see the danger coming his way. A jagged piece of the bat hit Long in the left cheek, slicing a muscle and damaging nerves. Once the fragments were removed, Long was left with a nasty gash, 10 stitches and temporary facial paralysis.