Columnist Dean Juipe: Metal bats dangerous and no fun

By now the "clang" or "ping" sound of the ball leaving the bat in a college baseball game has become familiar, the NCAA having switched from wood to aluminum bats in 1974.

Yet it still can be a disconcerting if not offensive noise, given the soothing sounds from the field in a major-league game where wooden bats have been a staple for more than 100 years.

At around $30, it's actually cheaper to buy a wooden bat. Of course the aluminum bats, which can cost up to $300, are good for two or three years while a wooden one could splinter at any minute.

Nonetheless, the NCAA is considering switching back to wooden bats after a series of serious discussions on the topic this winter.

UNLV baseball coach Rod Soesbe is among the many who would like to see the NCAA go back to the sticks after 25 years of metal.

"It sure would be a better game with wooden bats," he said Sunday before his Rebels dropped the finale of a three-game series to Cal State Fullerton at Wilson Stadium. The series produced an ungodly total of 72 runs scored on 82 hits, and pushed the Rebels' team ERA to 9.00 through the first 12 games of the season.

UNLV's pitching may be bad, but it's not that bad.

Fact is, it's easy to argue that metal bats have ruined collegiate baseball, as everyone is scoring more runs and distorting what were once time-honored standards of excellence. For instance, at last year's College World Series the collective home-run total was 62 -- which was 14 more than the previous record.

As a direct result of that home run derby, the NCAA made a slight modification in its bat requirements for this season. The new rule specifies that a bat can be no more than 2 5/8 inches in diameter and that it can't be more than three ounces lighter than its total length. (A practical application: A bat that is 35 inches long can weigh no less than 32 ounces.)

This is a very minor change and it came not as a result of fans or professional scouts complaining, nor as the result of aesthetics, but because of safety concerns. Pitchers have become deadly targets for muscular players swinging whippet-like clubs.

But even the remodeled bats can be as deadly as their predecessors, and twice during Sunday's game UNLV pitchers were fortunate to avoid being struck by line drives. One pitcher, Bryan Gidge, managed to finagle his body out of the way as the ball whizzed by, while another, Joe Maruffi, snagged a shot back up the middle that had his heart written on it.

The bat issue remains open-ended from the NCAA's perspective and Soesbe believes "we'll go back to a composite or laminated bat within three or four years." Those bats might not be made of pure timber, but even an ersatz wood would be an improvement over metal.

"I think we have to do it," Soesbe said. "The games have gotten too out of hand."

He's tired of scores like this weekend's 21-14, 16-6 and 13-2 horror stories. And he's willing to make the move to wood in spite of the increased costs that come with it, and in spite of the fact UNLV budgets him only $63,000 of the $200,000 or so he needs to play a season.

He's in favor of change because he's thinking about the good of the game.

He also remembers when the game was good.

archive