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Russell Branyan (Courtesy of SDDirk)
This argument comes up almost every season that college baseball needs to remove metal bats. Today’s argument comes from an article from Thetowntalk.com writer Randy Benson. He states that the college game is broken and to fix the game they should switch over to wood bats. I totally disagree with this as the wood bat games I have attended at the Division 2 level have been absolutely boring and even the summer league games which use wood bats have been awful to watch as balls barely even got to the outfield. You can check out the full article by clicking here. Do you think College Baseball needs to switch back to wood bats? Leave your comments below.
8 comments
Yes, I think colleges should switch back to wood bats. Keep the game as pure as it can be. If the pros use wood bats, so should college ball. Doesn’t make sense that college players have to re-learn hitting with wood bats during the summer leagues and pros. As far as offensive bat production, I’m sure it’ll pick up in college if they all used wood bats.
This guy writes, “College baseball generally is considered equal to somewhere between Class A and Class AA in the minor leagues.”
No, I don’t think so.
He does, however, make the case that aluminum bats affect the pitching vs. hitting balance, in favor of the hitters. We knew that already.
We also know that this is about money. If the money to supply wood bats for all NAIA, D-III, and not-well-financed D-I programs were to suddenly (or non-suddenly) materialize, I would be all for it. For the record, however, I’ve heard from multiple sources that requiring a switch to wooden bats would force some programs out of existence.
It’s amazing how many kids that kill the ball with aluminum can’t hit a lick with wood. I think aluminum bats are silly at the college level. every kid who plays college ball wants to play professionally. They would all be better served to learn to hit with wood as early as possible. It would significantly reduce wear and tear on pitchers, who have to work twice as hard to get outs against aluminum. The college strike zone is about 1.5 times the width of the plate to give pitchers a chance to compete. It’s a different game with aluminum.
I think this guy’s argument is about D1 baseball and fails to take in the lower levels. I know like 95 percent of D-3 programs in New England would go out of business.
As I said, Wood bat baseball is terribly dominated by pitching making the game less attractive to TV and fans. Do you want to watch a 2-1 game or a 8-7 game? I take the 8-7 game.
So you can add wood bats to the list of things which could kill baseball programs around the country…along with Title IX and BCS money.
It’s pretty clear the the writer on this is from LSU territory. Given There are only 5 or 6 profitable college baseball programs in the country I could only see this idea working for those 5 or 6 teams. Every other team, forget about it. Title IX definitely gets in the way among other things.
…..and yes aluminum bats do bring offense. Do you think you could sell out the LA Coliseum if they had an MLB home run derby with Aluminum bats? I know, I know…..they don’t play baseball in the LA Coliseum but it does seat 100,000 people.
You also might think that more college kids would reach the bigs compared to non americans in the majors who are born with a wood bat in their hands.
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I know the Cuban Major Leagues used Metal bats until recently…I don’t have the exact date though.
I must be missing all those televised college games, especially at the D3 level. It doesn’t make sense to me that any program that gives scholarships couldn’t afford the difference in cost. I would think the NCAA would be able to negotiate bulk discounts that would help a lot. But I think they are too busy getting greased by the bat companies. Plus there’s nothing like the sound of that “ting” when a kid gets jammed and still hits a line drive in the gap.
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