|
Welcome to the Don't Take My Bat Away Coalition Little League Baseball Safety News Announcement ILLINOIS STUDY: First On-Field Study Comparing Wood to Non-Wood Bats Finds Both Safe Update: Pennsylvania Rejects Metal Bat Ban Update: NFHS Comments On IL Field Study Update: Dusty Baker Named National Chairman of DTMBA Don't Take My Bat Away Coalition is a newly formed group of families, players, coaches, baseball leagues, bat makers and concerned citizens opposed to a government ban on the use of aluminum and composite bats in amateur baseball. Baseball, with both wood and aluminum bats, is one of the safest sports played in America today.
Our growing coalition includes: It's important we don't let the politicians take away our choices.. Sign up today!
If you would like to help in a leadership role, be sure to visit the Get Involved page and volunteer as a Coach or Captain. Overview: Safety in high school, or little league, or college, or anywhere kids play baseball, is a top concern for all of us. But banning aluminum bats won’t reduce the risk of injuries from batted balls, because the speed of the ball leaving today’s aluminum bats is comparable to the speed of a ball off the best wood bat. Accidents are rare in baseball; but they can also happen with wood bats – yet no one says ban wood.
Unlike wood bats, however, aluminum bats don’t shatter or splinter, which can lead to injury. They don’t sting your hands when you hit on cold days. More than 9 out of 10 amateur players use them because they have a choice and they prefer non-wood. They make the game more fun, which keeps interest in the game high and attracts young people to the sport. And since wood bats break a lot, they end up costing schools and parents more money. Players and leagues should be free to choose the bat of their choice. If they like wood because of tradition, they should be free to choose wood. If they like aluminum because they prefer the game that way, they should be free to choose aluminum. But politicians shouldn’t be able to tell people how to play the game – especially when both ways are safe. |
Like baseball itself, the debate about aluminum versus wood has many angles, but safety shouldn’t be one of them. Some players prefer wood because of tradition. Lots of children prefer aluminum because it’s easier to get a hit thanks to the bigger sweet spot found on metal bats. That’s why a ban is so harmful to baseball – it risks driving kids out of the game if it isn’t as much fun. 
If aluminum bats posed a true safety issue, you’d think those closest to baseball would have banned them years ago. But they haven’t.
