Dead Horses and Cans of Worms--and Bats

Guys, and Kathy, I feel compelled to open up this emotional issue, once again, in light of bats being in the news, again. You will see that I'm going "against the grain," and some of my previous posts..and here is why:

As a practicing athletic health care professional, I agree with most anything that will reduce injuries, especially if the statistics warrant. Over the past few days, I have been helping our college coach gather information to give to our chancellor, so she can make a more-informed decision in our conference's vote on whether to recind the vote on using wood/composite this coming season. The statistics, although not suprising, really indicate no current and valid safety concern.

1. Over the past 13 years, injury rates in college baseball have remained steady, or even have declined. This is even with the increased scoring this past season (before 1998, per-game scoring had remained steady, or increased only slightly).

2. In Little League baseball, the same trend is present, with "batted ball" injuries actually decreasing.

For the detailed NCAA/LL stats, please follow the links below:

http://www.littleleague.org/news/index2.htm
and go to:

Little League Baseball Statement on Non-Wood Bats

this is the link to the NCAA Sports Sciences:
http://www.ncaa.org/news/19980914/active/3532n21.html

Now, as a fan, I love wood, but the stats clearly lead me to conclude that using injuries as a reason for changing the standards doesn't wash and is thus, indefensable. Even last year, as a majority of the colleges used the Air Attacks and Redlines, injuries did not increase. Is the potential for injury there, yes, and maybe more total players at all ages ARE getting injured (I suggest as a result of increased participation and # of games/practices). It is important, however, not to look at TOTAL injuries, but to look at injury RATES: Total # of injuries/(# of players) * (# practices + # games).

I hope this helps you see things from the injury front, and it will be interesting to see how things play out between now and Aug 1999, when the new bat-velocity standards go into effect. JT