Minor leagues ban some maple bats
March 1, 2010
NEW YORK (AP)—Many maple bats will be banned in the minor leagues this season,part of Major League Baseball’s push to stop shattered shards of wood fromflying dangerously through the air.
New regulations will prohibit bats made from ultra-light maple. Thelow-density wood often is found in bats with big barrels and thin handles,creating a whip-like action when swung.
Softer red maple and silver maple—not commonly used—will be completelyeliminated by the 30-plus companies approved to make bats.
The bans apply to players who are not on 40-man rosters and have no majorleague experience. Baseball often tests new rules on minor leaguers, be it drugtests or pace-of-game ideas, because most of them are not in the MLB players’union and such moves do not require union approval.
MLB and the union have been extensively studying the issue of broken maplebats since 2008, as splintered barrels wildly helicoptered all over the fieldand into the stands.
“I think all bats are dangerous,” said Los Angeles Dodgers first basemanJohn Lindsey, who has spent 15 years in the minors without a major leaguecall-up. “It’s not like maple was the first bat to break. At times, they justlook crazy, but when bats break they fly all the time, no matter what kind ofwood.”
As part of the safety initiative, any big leaguer whose bat broke at least10 times last year must consult with a panel of MLB and union bat experts todetermine if there is some extenuating problem.
Baseball also is changing the specifications for all bats, slimming themaximum diameter of the barrel from 2.75 inches—which had been the standardfor more than 100 years—to 2.61 inches. Trying to change the geometry of bats,the minimum size of bat handles is being increasing by about 1-50th of an inch.
Those changes aren’t expected to have any impact on the bats that playerscurrently use.
“We’re not taking the bat out of anyone’s hands,” union lawyer BobLenaghan said Monday night.
Commissioner Bud Selig said in May 2008 that shattered maple bats were “asource of concern for me.” A safety panel of MLB and union officials beganstudying the issue with the USDA Forest Service’s Forest Products Laboratory andother experts.
More than 2,200 bats broken in the majors during the final 2 1/2 months of the2008 season were studied and catalogued, as was every cracked bat in the bigleagues last year, said Dan Halem, MLB senior vice president and general counselfor labor.
Guidelines were put into effect last year to govern the quality of woodgrain. Halem said maple bats cracked about one-third less often last year,particularly in the second half of the season as bat makers complied.
Bats made of maple and ash cracked at about the same rate, he said, butmaple was more likely to break into pieces.
“We want to keep doing more for safety,” Halem said.
Oakland outfielder Ryan Sweeney(notes) felt for the minor leaguers who might needto find new bats in 2010.
“That’s brutal. I know they did stuff with the two-tone bats last year andI saw more bats break in spring training than ever before,” he said. “I useboth and it depends on what I feel like. Some guys say the maple bats are betterbut it doesn’t matter to me.”
Cleveland utilityman Chris Gimenez(notes) made his major league debut last year andwill be exempt from the maple bat rules.
“I think they’ll have a tough time with that,” Gimenez said. “I don’t seehow that’s going to work. To me, it would be like they’re telling you that youcan’t use a third base glove anymore because it’s 12 inches and not eightinches. I don’t know how that will go over with a lot of guys.
“Say I break a bat and I’ve never been in the big leagues and the guy ondeck has been in the big leagues,” Gimenez said. “He hands me his. I hit ahome run with it. Are they going to take that away from me? I’m probably gettingtossed out of that game if they try to do that.”
AP freelance writers Mark Didtler, Rick Eymer, Jose Romero and Steve Herrickcontributed to this report.
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