New York's City Council is now considering a ban on metal bats, with former New York Mets reliever John Franco testifying Monday in support of the proposal. Franco and the bill's supporters are hoping a New York City high school ban would inspire others to follow.
"I'm speaking from someone who was standing on the mound for 22 years, and I can see the difference," Franco told a council committee on Monday. "And while I'm standing in the stands watching my son play, or some of the other Little Leaguers, I can see the difference."
Similar measures have been proposed by youth leagues and lawmakers in other states, including New Jersey, where a batted ball struck a 12-year-old boy in the chest, sending him into cardiac arrest. He was revived by spectators but was in a coma for months, just recently returning home. His father, Joseph Domalewski, told the committee on Monday his son sustained brain damage and still cannot walk. "My son is doing a sentence, and to me the only thing he did wrong is to pitch to a guy holding a metal bat," he said.
Yankees pitcher Mike Mussina and other opponents have said previously there is no evidence to suggest metal bats are more dangerous. Mussina and the ban's opponents believe the anti-metal movement relies on emotional anecdotes, but no scientific data. In 2005, an American Legion Baseball study found no substantial scientific evidence to support the argument that wooden bats are safer than metal, which has been in use since the early 1970s.
"I don't think it matters whether it's aluminum or wood or whatever the material is," Mussina said last fall. "I've been hit in the face. It's just part of it. I can understand they're emotional about it. But I don't see there's any more danger playing with aluminum or some other material."
Mussina is a member of the board of Little League Baseball, which also opposes the council's ban, along with sporting goods makers such as Easton Sports.
Do you think aluminum bats are more dangerous than wooden bats and, therefore, should be banned?
(Photo provided by Getty Images/taken by Cody Walker)
Bigger, Stronger, Faster, if you remember the Bionic Man from the 70's you can see the similarities of art becoming reality.
Bigger and stronger players. Better more efficient equipment. Greater skills. Its all part of the process of an 'enlarging' society. Getting bigger by shear numbers and genetics.
Shoulb metal bats be banned? No. Should the pitchers mound be moved back 5 feet.. there's a solution. How about face & head protection for pitchers? The poly-carbonate face guards used in the NBA might work. Should batters be handicaped based on their batting average?
Posted by: Mitchell Dowdy | September 13, 2007 at 12:01 AM