DIEGNAN INTRODUCES BILL FOR WOOD BAT-ONLY
YOUTH BASEBALL LEAGUES
Bill Spurred by Spate of Injuries to Pitchers Hit by Line Drives Off Metal Bats;
Measure Would Return 'Crack of the Bat' to New Jersey Ball Fields

(TRENTON) -- Assemblyman Patrick J. Diegnan, Jr. today introduced legislation to return youth and high school baseball leagues to wood-bat-only status, removing from the dugout the expensive high-tech metal bats that have been blamed for serious injuries to amateur ballplayers across the nation.The measure comes on the heels of a near-fatal injury sustained earlier this month by a 12-year-old pitcher from Wayne, whose heart momentarily stopped after he was struck in the chest by a line drive off a metal bat.

"The speed at which a ball comes off an aluminum bat can be so great that the reaction time for a pitcher to protect himself or herself is reduced to almost zero," said Diegnan (D-Middlesex). "We cannot protect every player against on-field injury, but we can correct a balance of power that has swung disproportionately in favor of hitters using increasingly lethal bats."

Diegnan's legislation would mandate the use of wood bats in all leagues where minors under age 18 participate. An exemption would be granted only for a game in which the visiting team hails from out-of-state.

A 2002 study conducted by researchers at Brown University in Rhode Island showed the differential in the speed of baseballs from metal versus wood bats. The research measured the speed of a ball hit off the fastest metal bat at 93.3 mph; the average speed achieved by the slowest wood model was 86.1 mph.

Overall, only 2 percent of balls hit with a wood bat exceeded 100 mph as opposed to 37 percent of the hits off metal bats.

Physicists attribute the increase in ball speeds to the fact that a metal bat warps slightly when contact is made with a baseball. As the ball leaves the bat, the rebounding metal pushes the ball as it moves outward, increasing its velocity. When a baseball hits a rigid wood bat, it is the ball that warps slightly, forcing a loss in kinetic energy and lowering the velocity of the hit.

Diegnan says that slight difference in speed could mean the difference between a pitcher being hit flush or being able to react enough to deflect -- or catch -- a line drive.

Fields laid out at Little League standards place pitchers 12-years-old and younger 46 feet away from a batter; a line drive hit at 60 miles per hour will reach the pitcher’s mound in only .52 seconds. For a high school pitcher facing a batter 60 feet, six inches away, a ball hit at 80 miles an hour also will reach the mound in only .52 seconds. Since a pitcher generally finishes his delivery several feet closer to home plate, reaction time is further reduced.

"It can take less than a second from the time a pitcher releases a ball to the time he finds that ball careening straight back," said Diegnan. "Anything that can lengthen a fielder’s reaction time -- even fractionally -- can go a long way to preventing a traumatic injury."

Diegnan's measure would be the broadest prohibition on the use of metal baseball bats in the country.

Several individual leagues across the nation have begun to remove metal bats from the dugout. Beginning this fall, several school districts in the Illinois High School Association will enter a pilot program to test wood bats at the interscholastic level. The move was forced after a 16-year-old pitcher was left in a coma for 10 days after a line drive off of an aluminum bat smashed into the side of his head.

All North Dakota high school teams will switch to wood in 2007. Massachusetts' Catholic Conference high school league has used wood bats since 2003, and the Milford Little League in that state switched from metal bats this year after several coaches voiced concerns over the increasing speed of batted balls.

Diegnan noted that advances in wooden bat production have created equipment that is less prone to breakage and cost a fraction of some high-end aluminum bats.

"Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, and Roberto Clemente never heard anything except the inimitable and awe-inspiring 'crack' of the bat," said Diegnan. "It is time to do away with the hollow 'ping' and the increased risk of injury aluminum bats brought to New Jersey's ball fields."

--30--

For Release:
June 22, 2006

Contact:
Assemblyman Diegnan/(908) 757-1677
Derek Roseman/(609) 292-7065