Carolyn Jones writes an interesting article for the San Francisco Chronicle, in which she discusses an accident involving a high school baseball player who was injured by a line drive from a metal bat. Gunnar Sandberg, a sixteen year old baseball player for Marin Catholic high school was hit in the left temple while pitching. It is estimated that the ball that hit Gunnar was traveling 100 mph. Fortunately, for Gunnar, he is doing much better now, but things was scary at first. Doctors had to operate on Gunnar’s brain, and also place him in a chemical-induced coma. Since the accident, Marin Catholic has banned metal bats and started using wood bats. Jones includes statistics about metal bats versus wooden bats. She also comments on Gunnar’s personality and how others considered him to be an outstanding young man. Jones also mentions that there are some opposed to banning metal bats such as “Little League, The National Collegiate Athletic Association and The American Baseball Coaches Association” because the injury rate between metal and wood are basically the same (“Injury”).
Switching from metal to wooden bats will always be a controversial topic. There are many injuries that are associated with metal bats. Just the name “metal” sounds dangerous itself. Carolyn Jones states that metal bats have been in use since the 1920s. They saved teams money since metal is more durable than wood (“Injury”). In a contact sport like baseball where players throw nearly 100 mph and balls travel off of bats at excess speeds of 100 mph, someone is likely to get hurt. I don’t think we can take away the dangers of the playing the game but maybe we can reduce them. Although, some teams have made the switch to wooden bats, the majority still swing metal bats. Players swing metal bats faster because they are lighter. Now one can find bats made out of titanium, which is lighter and stronger than metal. Jones mentions in her article “that a baseball travels 4 mph faster coming off a metal bat than a wooden bat”.
In a game where faster is better and stronger is preferred, players will continue to improve to impress managers and owners. We have to believe that baseballs will be hit harder and injuries may be fatal. Maybe there is no significant difference between metal and wood, but there has to be something that can be done to reduce the risk to our players. Maybe we can look at pitchers wearing special helmets or changing the texture of the baseball itself. The game will always be fun to play and exciting to watch, but never do we want to see any player greatly hurt or even killed. After all, it’s just a game.
Carolyn, Jones. “Injury Puts Renewed Focus on Metal Bats.” San Francisco Chronicle (10/1/2007 to present) 23 Mar. 2010: A1. Newspaper Source Plus. EBSCO. Web. 28 Apr. 2010.
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