Maple Bats claim another victim
-
I understand this could happen with bats made of ash or any other wood, but it seems that
Maple bats in particular have a habit of splintering in very nasty ways
Lovullo OK after broken bat scare
Tribe's Triple-A manager needs stitches after being struck in face
By Anthony Castrovince / MLB.com
GOODYEAR, Ariz. -- One minute, Torey Lovullo was having a conversation with hitting coach Derek Shelton about outfielder Trevor Crowe. The next, a gaping wound above Lovullo's left eye was getting tended to by head athletic trainer Lonnie Soloff.
Just that quickly, Lovullo, the Indians' manager at Triple-A Columbus, had become a victim of the maple bat.
Lovullo was standing with Shelton in the dugout during the fourth inning of the Indians' game against the Rockies on Sunday, watching Crowe at the plate, when Crowe's bat shattered on contact with the ball. The broken bat flew over the heads of Lovullo and Shelton, hit the netting directly above the Indians' dugout and ricocheted back. When Lovullo turned to see where it went, the bat immediately struck him above the eye.
"I was paying attention and locked into the game, but, once the bat cleared the dugout, I thought I was safe," Lovullo said. "As soon as I turned to see where that bat was, it was right on me."
Lovullo knew he was bleeding, so he immediately ducked into the Tribe dugout, out of the view of the fans at Goodyear Ballpark. He was taken off to the trainer's room at the Player Development Complex, where a team doctor used nine stitches to seal the wound.
Back at work Monday morning, Lovullo had a nasty shiner under his sunglasses, his left eye essentially sealed shut.
He was lucky he was wearing sunglasses at the time of the incident. Had he not been wearing them, the bat might have pierced his eye.
"They definitely protected me," he said. "That was a blessing that I had them on."
Ordinarily, a player or coach getting struck by an object in the dugout is guilty of not paying full attention to the game. But in this case, Lovullo was only guilty of forgetting about the net behind the dugout. In the vast majority of ballparks, the netting is only located behind the plate. At the Indians' new spring home, it extends to the end of each dugout to provide protection for fans down the baselines.
"[The netting] is very close," Lovullo said. "We're all glad it's there to protect fans, but we just have to get more used to that, knowing it's there."
Broken bats are, of course, part of the game. But last season, the higher proliferation of broken maple bats led Major League Baseball to investigate the issue. The bats weren't banned, but MLB did impose a set of criteria regarding "slope of grain" that manufacturers must adhere to.
"We know Major League Baseball is aware of the bat issue," Lovullo said. "It's unfortunate that it happened. But there's nothing I want to say other than it's being investigated by Major League Baseball and they'll make good decisions, like they always have."
Crowe was one of several people who called Lovullo on Sunday night to make sure he was all right. Lovullo, who has been a coach or manager in the Indians' system for eight years, was able to joke about the incident the next day.
"In a couple years," he said, "the folklore of it will be that I was protecting Eric Wedge from hazardous objects and took the bullet for him."
-
These bats are soon to be on the scrap heap. I think they make them illegal by 2011 at the latest.
-
They will have to use something because the demand exceeds the ability of white ash trees to grow.
I think some day MLB will work on a aluminum bat.....not a tricked up version like we see at all levels of armature baseball, but rather a deadened version. One that performs much like a wood bat with the exception of breaking.
I think it would be possible to build aluminum bats with smaller sweet spots and ones who's trampoline effect replicates a wood bat.
If you can make them hit the ball further, you can make them to hit it with less velocity.
If not, I know you can make a baseball as mushy as you want. Do some testing with aluminum bats and the "dead ball" used in days past.
There are ways they can solve the problem without messing with the integrity of the games standards or placing players at increased risk.
-
i don't want to sound skeptical or start a conspiracy but i honestly think that bud selig, or his buddies, are profiting from the maple bats. if they switched to ash or another wood, then too many people would lose too much money. selig has shown time and time again that he doesn't care about the integrity of the game as long as he makes money (for example letting the entire steroids thing go on because it was making him money). or maybe it is just that he is so full of himself that he honestly thinks that the maple bats are a good thing. i personally think that along with my first statement, bud thinks that the maple bats are what keep the baseballs flying out of the parks. perhaps he thinks that without maple bats there wouldn't be so many homeruns. either way, selig continues to show us that he is by far the worst commissioner in sports, yet the highest paid.
-
Players still use white ash bats.
No??
-
It did seem like there was alot of broken bats that turned into missles last year. I can't recall so many broken bats as I saw last year.
Hello! It looks like you're interested in this conversation, but you don't have an account yet.
Getting fed up of having to scroll through the same posts each visit? When you register for an account, you'll always come back to exactly where you were before, and choose to be notified of new replies (either via email, or push notification). You'll also be able to save bookmarks and upvote posts to show your appreciation to other community members.
With your input, this post could be even better 💗
Register Login