After a high school baseball player was hit in the head by a line drive some dingbat California legislator is bringing the idea of Nanny state to a new level.
Democrat Assembly member Jared Huffman introduced a bill to make aluminum bats illegal. That’s right. Illegal for one year.
Hugh Hewitt writes:
This bill is opposed by pretty much every key organization in the baseball world, including Little League International, Babe Ruth League Inc., USA Baseball and PONY Baseball and Softball. These organizations have all published letters or memos and the subject, and they all say very much the same things.
First, by comparison to other youth sports, baseball if among the safest if not the safest sport.
Next, the best, most recent research does not support the idea that aluminum bats are significantly more dangerous than wood bats. In fact, it is impossible to compare the two because wood bats can and do break and splinter, and an increase in their usage will cause some sorts of injuries to increase.
California is essentially chasing businesses away with their confiscatory tax rates and now they’re trying to chase Little League away?
One has to ask, is there any issue that should not be handled by government? I guess not. Now, if they wanted to discuss a law banning the designated hitter I’d be willing to consider it.
June 3, 2010 at 4:38 am
Next thing you know, it'll be reduced to plastic bats and whiffle balls.
Oh wait! Plastic is eeeeevviiillll!!!
June 3, 2010 at 11:56 am
The Marin County Athletic League, the league Gunnar Sandberg plays in, banned metal bats right after the incident.
When will those wusses in the major leagues start using metal bats?
June 3, 2010 at 2:03 pm
PING!
I support any legislation that does away with the scourge of aluminum bats.
Seriously, though: this is crazy.
June 3, 2010 at 2:04 pm
Larry:
Not if the plastic is made from soybean oil…
June 3, 2010 at 2:18 pm
Yep Larry, and we can't have all those trees cut down for wooden bats. I guess baseball is just an inherently evil game.
June 3, 2010 at 2:53 pm
Play ball! Play ball the w/ plain Jane ole tech wooden bats. If someone wants to use aluminum in a game, let them use it to wrap their sandwich.
June 3, 2010 at 2:56 pm
I agree, the MLB needs to start using Aluminum bats, it's much more fun to hear the PING
June 3, 2010 at 3:32 pm
It would be interesting to see where the college/minors/majors baseball organizations weigh in on this…
And then, what happens when a kid gets hit in the head with a line drive off of a particularly good Little League hitter with a wooden bat? Ban baseball?
June 3, 2010 at 3:54 pm
Oh dear. I'm afraid you misunderstood.
I *hate* the PING, and generally detest aluminum bats. They are the scourge. California is trying, in its ham-fisted nanny-state way, to be the cure.
June 3, 2010 at 5:30 pm
Things here in Montana are even worse:
http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/article_092384f6-c3eb-11de-8110-001cc4c03286.html
June 3, 2010 at 5:53 pm
Aluminum bats are terrible. Good for California.
June 3, 2010 at 11:43 pm
Like it or not, all sports carry an element of risk. As an example; my former nephew was blinded in one eye by a line drive in his Little League game. Stuff happens. Deal with it.
What's next, we put the kids in full body bubble wrap?
June 4, 2010 at 4:15 pm
You might have to be +40 years in age, but if you have ever seen a wooden bat shatter at the handle and the splinters that are sprayed 360 degrees from the area of impact, you'd immediately know why aluminum bats are safer.
The distance and velocity the splinters travel is negated by the distance the batter in a major league ball park stands from the nearest fans.
The catcher, umpire and pitcher on the other hand, well, there on the opposite team and there fore targets of opportunity.
June 4, 2010 at 4:41 pm
That reminds me of the story (true, I think) of the baseball player who suggested moving first base back a couple of feet, "to eliminate close plays." In other words, he thought all those close plays at 90 feet could be eliminated by going to 92.
This character thinks if you use ash instead of aluminum, presto! No more hits in the head!
June 4, 2010 at 6:02 pm
So, the environmentalist psychos of Calfornia would rather cut down trees to make baseball bats? Kind of hard to believe. Seems more like step one in the west coast communists trying to ban baseball because it's too American.
June 4, 2010 at 6:36 pm
"You might have to be +40 years in age, but if you have ever seen a wooden bat shatter at the handle and the splinters that are sprayed 360 degrees from the area of impact, you'd immediately know why aluminum bats are safer."
Yeah right. I was a pitcher for 15+ years. I'll take a wooden bat shattering any day over a line drive "screamer" from an aluminum bat. Aluminum bats are safer – what a joke.
June 5, 2010 at 5:06 am
Fun is evil, little league is a way to have fun.
Doing something not organised by The Partei is evil, little league is not organised by The Partei.
Baseball bats aren't regulated by The Partei, everything must be regulated by The Partei.
And Big Baseball is against banning them, and everything Big is evil and has to be thwarted by The Partei.
See, perfectly normal for The Partei to want to ban the things.
June 5, 2010 at 5:11 pm
A state that has a $16 Billion deficit should focus on something else, like balancing its budget. Sounds like a plan. Oh, and just in case you haven't realized it, raising taxes will just drive away the revenue producers. Take a look at Texas and you might, and I stress MIGHT, be able to save your sorry asses.