A Better Bat?

Much thanks to Sam Mellinger for some inspiration for this post. Near the bottom of one of his recent posts there was a link to a story about a new type of wood bat designed by an MIT graduate. I don't know about you, but I think MIT grads are pretty smart, and I like seeing what they come up with. I followed the link and dug a little deeper to find out about Radial Bats.

If you haven't heard by now, there is some growing concern about the safe use of maple bats in the Major Leagues. In junior college I played in one of the nation's only wood-bat conferences, and it was about the time that maple was becoming the wood of choice. I've used both maple and the traditional white ash, and can say from experience that the maple bats seemed to have more 'pop' in them. The ball jumped off the maple bats more than the others. However...

I can also say from experience that the only bats I ever saw explode were also maple. The ash bats would usually just crack, and you would have to tap the handle on the ground to be sure it had. But there was hardly a doubt as to whether a maple bat had broken. The were often liable to shatter, splinter, and sometimes even break in half. That's why there are safety concerns. And, that's one reason that MIT graduate Ward Dill has designed a better bat.

Near as I can tell (and trust me, I don't have time to completely read all of the things I link to either), the bat is ingenious. Any wood bat that comes with a one-year limited warranty deserves closer examination. According to the article in the Sporting News, this bat was just unveiled about a week ago, so it will probably be a while before these start showing up on TV in the hands of your favorite players. But, hopefully the League will take a look at them, and consider allowing them in games.

But, having played in a wood-bat conference in college, and having seen my fair share of Division-I collegiate baseball games (where metal bats are used), I'm really hoping that the durability and performance of the Radial Bat will finally give the NCAA the chance to discontinue the use of those metal clubs, replacing the "ping" of a College World Series homerun with the "crack" of a wood bat -- the way it was intended to be. And who knows... If it also makes the game safer, I don't think many people will complain.