An article was forwarded to me recently, from the Sports Illustrated "Vault", which is an archive of SI articles from years past.  This particular article was written in 1989, by Peter Gammons, and it was predicting the end of wood bats in pro baseball, along with many of the arguments made today in 2010, regarding not only the differences in wood and metal bats, but also the positives and negatives of both.  Little did they know 21 years ago that the metal bat industry would be a $200M industry.  You can read the full article for yourself and there are some statements in there, for the benefit of metal, that don't fit with my beliefs but there are some rationale statements non-the-less.  Gammons predictions for the future were quite a bit off the mark in terms of metal getting into the pro game, but the article is a good one to read.

Below is the excerpt that I liked the best... and it is a subject I have been harping on for a long time, that being the dangers to pitchers, aside from safety, that metal bats pose.  The dangers detailed below do not discuss injuries to pitchers' arms, but clearly it is an effect that has become a reality.  Just ask Dr. James Andrews, whose TJ, labrum, and rotator cuff surgery business is better than he ever wanted it to be, for 14-18 year old kids.

July 24, 1989

End Of An Era

What would the Babe think? The crack of the wooden bat is being replaced by the ping of aluminum. And by the end of the next decade, the ping is likely to be heard in the majors

The San Jose Mercury News ran a couple of articles discussing D1 coaches and their preference for metal bats.  No surprise as to why they favor them, they profit, big time.  Why do they profit big time?  If you have to ask, this might be hard for you to understand... but here goes... because by cutting the coach of a major D1 program a check for $100K-$200K (more?) to use their products, the bat companies can sell more of their bats to the high school and younger aged kids.  The money they spend on lining the pockets of the coaches to be spokesmen for their product is what you call a 'loss leader' which is basically the fundamental method of all marketing and advertising ideas. 

If the same coaches were paid that much to pitch whiffle ball bats, they would, and they would tell us all the reasons whiffle bats are better for their game.  Yep, their statements are as transparent as a pane of glass.

Here is the Mercury News article in which coaches from Notre Dame, Texas, South Carolina, Texas A&M, Rice, North Carolina, Arkansas, Fullerton, Tulane, Oklahoma State, and Wichita State (you know, some smallish D1 programs just trying to get by) profess their love for the metal bat.  They are executing terms of their contracts VERY WELL with their statements, serving as spokesmen, pitchmen if you will, for the bat companies that allow them to live so comfortably.

Here is the other article where you can get an idea of exactly how much $ some of these coaches are getting to use and say they favor metal bats.  Anyone that can't see it or understand what is going on here, well, as they say, if you don't get it, you won't get it.

A snippet of that second article... and remember, these coaches are given their jobs by universities, given the opportunity to earn this extra little bit of change, yet, the universities don't see a dime of it, it goes to the coaches personal bank accounts.

"Manufacturers such as Louisville Slugger and Easton provide free bats and other gear to elite programs and pay coaches—sometimes six figures—for agreeing to use their products.  

Paul Mainieri, coach of 2009 national champion LSU, has a clause in his contract that calls for him to receive $150,000 a year from the school's athletic booster club and equipment deals. His contract does not break down how much of that money comes from Easton, the Tigers' bat supplier.

Asked about the bat issue, Mainieri said only that he prefers aluminum.

"He is concerned about saying anything that might affect his relationship with his bat company," LSU baseball spokesman Bill Franques wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

Besides the coaches' paychecks, many programs save thousands of dollars a year in equipment costs because bat manufacturers supply bats for free.

"I think there's some traditionalist in all of us," said South Carolina's Ray Tanner, whose contract calls for him to receive $120,000 a year from Easton."

Oklahoma's Sunny Golloway, who prefers wood, said economics won't allow Division I to go away from metal bats, which set the college game apart from pro ball.

"If we all of a sudden are swinging a wooden bat, there's a good chance we are not the showcase anymore," he said. "I'm realistic enough to know you're not going to ask coach A or coach X to not accept his 100K check this year so they can try this wooden bat."

Yahoo! published an article on Friday, May 28, "Head injuries to pitchers trigger cry for protection."  The article centered on USF pitcher Matt Hiserman, who I wrote about upon his comeback earlier in the spring, and around Gunnar Sandberg, along with other kids that have been struck by batted balls off metal bats.  Obvisously if you are reading this, you know how I feel about this issue and ALL the reasons metal bats are bad for baseball.

I am glad Yahoo! wrote an article about the safety issue, but let's be clear here, the article is simply an advertisement for headgear, which will be and is made by the same companies that make the headgear necessary.  I would be willing to bet, that if we dug not too deeply, we would find that a lobbyist firm or a publicist for a bat company approached Yahoo! and "asked" them to write the article.  A person named Dave Halstead, technical director of the Southern Impact Research Center and a apparently some sort of expert in the area of head and neck injuries, is quoted in the article, saying this,

“It’s nonsense that the non-wood bat is the reason for these injuries,” Halstead said. “The exit speed from the bat is the same."

It is a gross injustice that he is allowed to get that comment out there.  Was he supported and propped up by the SGMA or the "don't take my bat away" group or paid off by a bat company?  I sure hope that was his reason for saying something he knows nothing about and should not be speaking about.  He is a person that knows about head injuries and neck injuries, not baseball bats, or anything about the game.  I am willing to bet he only knows the "evidence" offered by the bat cartel that talks about exit speeds in lab experiments.  

THE PLAYERS KNOW THE TRUTH.  REAL COACHES KNOW THE TRUTH.  SCOUTS KNOW THE TRUTH.  THE BAT MAKERS ABSOLUTELY KNOW THE TRUTH. 

DAVE HALSTEAD, HEAD AND NECK INJURY EXPERT, HE DOES NOT KNOW THE TRUTH AND I WOULD LOVE FOR HIM TO KNOCK ON THE SANDBERG'S DOOR AND TELL GUNNAR THAT THE BALL DOES NOT COME OFF A METAL BAT ANY FASTER.