Posted by: Major Dan (markj89@charter.net) on Mon Apr 1 06:53:31 2002

continued from March thread:

I live in Norfolk, 5 minutes from Foxboro Stadium.
> Are you sure that only two MA high school conferences have switched over to wood? That would definitely suprise me, especially considering the fuss the Bay State Conference put up over that kid getting hit in the head. Hey, the same thing can happen with wood. Just look at the major leagues.
> By the way, I think the trend sucks. My season started 2 weeks ago and already I've broken 100 dollars worth of wood! But, I will say, using wood is a great challenge for a life long metal bat hitter like myself.

Hitdog-
I was at the Mass Baseball Coaches Association conference on the Cape this winter (January) and at the general meeting there was discussion of how two conferences had switched to wood for this year and that others were considering. Sounded like the others were thinking of next year, etc. Not positive. But it sounded like a trend was starting.
The broken bats issue was what started the aluminum thing to begin with.
Also true that high performance bats are more dangerous - more rebound, more velocity off the bat, faster back at the pitcher or third baseman. At NCAA level, faster than human reaction time sometimes and you can't coach around that without helmets or protective screens.

Hit the ball with the narrow grain side of the bat (label UP at contact). Don't hit it on the handle!!! I'll bet you know that already. Pitchers will start coming inside more against wood just because of that. Got to learn to pull the hands in and hook that hand path (bht) for the inside pitches.!!
Did/do you play for the Hitdogs (AAU)?