jzinger34

I have been glued to the television for the first two real days of the baseball season. I have had the remote on full alert since. I don't know if it is more than usual, but I have seen bats breaking left and right. Major League baseball introduced the rule that coaches had to wear batting helmets for the first time this year. This was instituted because of a freak injury to a minor league coach who took a line drive in the head, and paid the ultimate price. I like the rule. But what of the dangers of the broken bat. I don't recall anyone ever being severely injured by a broken bat. I do remember Steve Yeager taking a splinter of a bat in the throat, thus the invention of the throat guard that dangled from the bottom of the catchers mask. I do remember Roger Clemens chucking the barrel of a broken bat. It just amazes me that with all the marvels of modern technology, that the best we can do is make a bat from an ash tree. I know that an aluminum bat is not the answer because that would get someone killed for sure. I know I have taken one in the leg from an aluminum bat 55 feet away and it left lace marks on my leg for three days, in amazingly deep purples! I know that hockey has gone to composites and they seem to like them. I just wonder if they can create a bat out of plastics or composites that will not produce the same effects as an aluminum bat, and react more like wood? I know this seems trivial, but I just wonder why it hasn't been addressed. If there are any chemistry majors out there who could create such a bat, I'm sure you payroll would rank right up there with A-Rod!