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Leland Clemmons Campbell English 1102 10 April 2012 The Evolution of Baseball Bats The changes the game of baseball has gone through in the past century are astronomical. One of the biggest changes that the game has been through has been the switch from wood to metal bats. It has single handedly changed the way that baseball is being played and has contributed to a lot of underlying factors of the game. The switch from BBCOR bats has made advancement as well as a relapse in the game which has made it a safer sport at the collegiate level. Although it hinders some statistics of homerun ratios and base hits, it is alleviating the stress of players worrying about their bodily injuries. BBCOR bats are very similar to wood bats in the sense of speed off the bat and coefficient of restitution. This gives professional scouts a better sense of how well a particular player can hit the ball and how far they can hit. The NCAA decided to change from the old metal bats to the new BBCOR certified aluminum which now being used throughout collegiate baseball for the safety of the players.This slows down the game but makes it a more even playing field for both offense and defense because the offense has to work harder and the defense is less likely to get injured and can focus on the balls easier.

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Espn says that the new bats slow down the gameplay of baseball to a more moderate level then high speed. It makes pitching more important because teams are starting to switch to what the call small ball play, meaning that the infielders are getting more play then the out due to the circumstances that the balls arent going as far as they were. Also, the ball doesnt jump off the bat as much as it did the older bats, thus giving pitchers and infielders more time to react to line drives. This helps the reoccurring issues that the NCAA was having with so many traumatic injuries and fatalities too ball speed of the more modern bats. They use wood bats in the major league/ minor league games because the players are generally at their peaks around the age of 23 meaning that they are physically fit to handle a wood bat and hit the ball with the same amount of strength to make it go far. With increasing technology of baseball bats, it allows baseballs to come off the bat faster thus creating a harder game for the defenders. It doesnt help the defense mainly because of this reason; the defenders cannot react fast enough to the ball coming off the bat faster than it was thrown to the batter.

Michael Bonifay a freshman baseball player at UNC-Charlotte elaborated his own personal views on the differences in bats. He said that in high school he played some games at 3rd base, and when a good hitter would step in and hit the ball he felt that he had less the reaction time if the ball was hit with a lot of force. If he was playing infield, his reaction time was close to none when the ball was hit hard. When he was a junior the ball took hit him in the knee from a very close proximity and ended up chipping some bone from his knee cap. So, now when he plays 3rd base here at UNCC with the new bats he still doesnt have much time to react to the ball but the reaction time is greatly increased due to the lack of pop that the new bats have. Now instead of having less than a hundredth of a second to react to the ball he has around 2-4

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tenths of a second to react, and in baseball that makes it great deal easier to make the play on the ball. On my personal experience I play outfield and the old bats were actual better because the sound of contact made me react in different ways. You can tell if the ball is hit harder so it allowed me to make better decisions on the play. The bats actually gave me the advantage over the hitters due to the noise. The new bats make the ball jump off the ball slower than usual. As far as hitting I still make good contact but I dont hit as many homeruns as I used to. I had a ball hit me that I thought was a low line drive to my glove. The batter hit it harder than I thought and it went over my head. So the sound actually deceived me into thinking it was a weak hit.

My coaches have based their game on the speed of making the players panic on the opposite team. It makes the game go so faster so our playing style is to play fast as possible. The other teams dont have a chance to react to our speed. Our coach says he doesnt really care how many times they change the bats as long as we play harder than the other team. Even if the ball doesnt fly like it used to the hustle still is needed to provide wins. So now my coach have emphasized making contact more in the sweet spot and focusing on hitting through the ball to make maximum contact. The sweet spot is decided by the coefficient of restitution. Sweet spots are smaller now due the shrinking of the coefficient of restitution. The statistics show that homerun ratio has gone down tremendously since the new bats. The old bats provided so much more power that it was easy to hit a pop up that will go deep. Now the margin for error is broader due to the new bat. The pitchers ERA are even going down due to lesser hits.

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Pitchers have the advantage because its harder to get hits unless there hit square on. The sweet spot is small so the pitcher can manipulate the batter by jamming him and putting the ball in awkward places. There are many double plays due to the bats now because fielders have enough time to react. Now in the games there are lesser homeruns and quicker games. It is a bitter sweet game which is only exciting when things are going your way. In conclusion I feel that the change of the bats to a more technological bat has helped because of how humans are advancing as well. In a sense that players are bigger and stronger than they were back when wood bats were the regulation, so it makes it a more level playing field for both sides of the ball. Defenders injury ratios have gone down which is a great thing for players at a collegiate level who plan on having dreams of pro ball. Also it means as an offense player you can show off your actual skill and talent rather than using technological advancement in a baseball bat to make you a better athlete. Baseball has become safer and a little bit slower which I think is perfectly fine because it allows the crowd to enjoy the game just a little while longer.

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Works Cited Johnson, Greg. "New Bat Standards Coming in January." NCAA News. Web. 9 Mar. 2012. Nathan, Alan M. "A Comparative Study of Baseball Bat Performance." Mendeley Research Networks. International Sports Engineering Association 2011. Web. 9 Mar. 2012. Orinick, Steve. "The BBCOR Bat Standard." Steve O's Baseball Umpire Resources Web Site. The BBCOR Bat Standard. Web. 9 Mar. 2012. Spurlock, Chris. "How the New BBCOR Regulations Will Affect Baseball as We Know it." Beyond the Box Score. Web. 9 Mar. 2012.