Up in Massachusetts, most of the high school kids returning to ball field for practice this Spring are having to deal with a drastic change: about a generation after they disappeared from competitive play outside of professional baseball, wooden bats are making a comeback:
In Auburn, the baseball players had grown accustomed to baseballs flying 400 feet from home plate into the high school parking lot. But batting practice now often brings a few line drives and mostly catchable fly balls, with the occasional shot over an outfielder's head. As a group, the players seem split on the shift to wood."We're all equal now," first baseman Adam Abderrazzaq said. "It's not the $350 bat hitting the ball, it's the player."
But Joe Germain, an outfielder, said: "The wood is not for me. I liked going up there hacking. Not now."
Drew Gribbons, meanwhile, has acquired batting gloves that he laces tightly, although he was still shaking the vibration and sting from his hands whenever he swung his new wood bat and missed the sweet spot.
"I'll get used to it," Gribbons said afterward, smiling. "Well, hopefully. I've got all year."
While the genesis of the movement back to wood was caused by a number of horrific accidents involving line drives off aluminum bats striking players in the face, there's more to this debate than just safety. Cost is also a factor, as an aluminum bat can last a cash-strapped high school team a whole season, while wooden bats crack and split all the time.
As someone who briefly became a force to be reckoned with on the softball field because of the aluminum bat, I can sympathize with the kids who are struggling with the change. But baseball is about history, and it's about being able to compare performance from different eras. Going back to wood helps reinforce that connection. It's a change I like.
