Banish Metal Baseball Bats?

I don't know about aluminium baseball bats, but, Dennis Lillee, probably Australia's greatest ever fast bowler, used an aluminium cricket bat(called a ComBat), After almost hitting a ball for four runs (for ignorant ones....when batting), the England captain approached the umpires and complained that the aluminium bat had damaged the ball, Lillee was asked to change his bat for the more conventional willow cricket bat...........Dennis was very upset by this decision, hurling his aluminium bat half way across the WACA (Western Australian Cricket Association) oval. (There was nothing in the laws of cricket that should have prevented him from using the aluminium bat).

I don't know whether an aluminium baseball bat would damage the ball.

When I was a kid I used to play baseball for the school that I attended, also for a club..........I loved the game and used to listen to the Major League American baseball on short wave radio............I recall one night Mickey Mantle came up and hit a home run right handed........later on he produced the same result left handed, a terrific switch hitter......I must admit he was my idol in those days, along with "Yogi" Berra. I still love watching the games occasionally on Foxtel Television (pay T.V.)

D.K. Lillee (left) with his aluminium ComBat.....pointing it at Australian captain Allan Border.

It is a fact that baseballs do bounce off metal bats at a higher velocity than wooden bats. It is also true batters tend to use lighter bats to generate faster bat speed which also affects the speed of the baseball off the bat (and more home runs).

Yes, metal bats should be damped to reduce the rebond down to wood levels.

Of course, umpires will need to be trained to spot altered metal bats, along with trying to find "corked" or altered wood bats.

Metal bats do perform better than wood bats. Like the previous poster said the ball does bounce off the metal bat better and they do increase bat speed due to lighter weight. The bats are also engineered with features such as pressurized chambers that increase the bounce of the ball. What would be the point of engineering the metal bats to perform like wood bats? Just use a wood bat if that's what you want. With all sports and all things there are risks involved and associated with it. It's up to the player and or the parents if they want to take the risk and play the game. Changing the specification of a bat is going to do little to alleviate those risks.

Metal bats have been in use for so long now, (at least since I was a kid in the 80's) that they are the "norm" now. I coached Little League for 7 years and I don't recall ever seeing a wooden bat except for the ones we used in batting practice to build up strength. Not to mention that Middle school, High school and College all use the metal bats. If they switched to wood bats there would be a drastic dip in hitting performance.

Check the Univercity of Massachusetts at Lowell for information. They have been doing research on non-wood bats for Major League Baseball for at least a couple of years

I hope MLB does not go to metal bats! Give the pitchers a break.

Yes I am old fashioned. Yes I am a troglodyte! I do not want to change the sound of the crack of a well hit ball with a cheap metallic "ping".

I agree with that. The MLB wouldn't be the same without the wooden bats. It would get pretty boring seeing them hit it out of the park every other batter with the metal bats.

Metal bats are here to stay!

Best adapt to them.