Why Metal Bats in Division 1 College Baseball
My brother and I were talking a couple days ago. I had just gone to scout a couple players in the USF Dons game against Nevada University. We were going over my notes and he asked me why college ball players are still using metal bats. And to be honest, I don’t know, it’s actually quite bizarre that players who are trying to become professional baseball players are using metal bats. I get why we used to use them in little league ball, but players 18–22 years old, sometimes older, should hit with wooden bats. I mean there’s simply nothing but wooden bats in the Major Leagues nor in the Minor Leagues. Not even in the outlaw leagues are metal bats used and I find that odd. I mean these players are shooting for a professional MLB career right?
I’m currently watching Stanford play the Huskies on my phone and it reminded me to revisit this article. So, the top google result when one looks up the wisdom behind using an aluminum bat in college baseball, is that aluminum is cheaper. Almost permanent, though they can get dinged up and dented eventually. Overall a metal bat is going to last longer than a wooden bat, would require a lot less replacement bats and thus be cheaper. That seems to make sense enough considering these kids are at a level where they don’t know if they will ever make good money in baseball. But I still had questions even after learning about the difference in costs.
Luckily my first question could be answered by the same article. I wanted to know when if ever, did collegiate baseball begin allowing an aluminum bat. The NCAA, by and large, switched from wooden to aluminum bats in 1974 in response to rising costs. Today, wooden bats aren’t technically banned for use by the NCAA, and though they rarely are used nowadays in college baseball, they’ve produced great results in the right hands. Apparently one can choose to use a wooden bat while playing at the collegiate level, yet they’re still said to rarely be used. So I’m sitting here thinking to myself that these kids can afford college, previous training, possibly personal trainers and coaches and who knows what else. But they can’t afford a couple extra bats?
There is more to it though. One of the less conventional seeming pieces of knowledge was given to me by a team mate on my amateur summer league team. He had played in College fairly recently and he said that an aluminum bat simulates professional level fielding for the defense. College players don’t hit the ball as hard as the professionals and thus the infield gets a more accurate feel for the pros when a metal bat is being used. That seems all well and good for the defense, but that still leaves me wondering about the guy swinging the bat and I’m not worried about his wallet. I’m wondering how one is supposed to scout a player for the pros at a college level when they are swinging a metal versus a wooden bat.
Summer collegiate baseball leagues use wooden bats (hence the nickname they’re often referred to as, wood-bat leagues), giving professional organizations more of a true indicator to how a hitter can produce while handling the differences of a wood bat — they’re usually heavier than metal, meaning there is a greater emphasis on swing mechanics — while facing a similar level of competition. Players that shine in the summer leagues tend to get more attention from scouts. This makes sense to me, considering they would already be used to the standard and the standard hitting mechanics. Clearly the professionals would never switch to using metal bats as that would completely change the game. A game that is now played for millions upon millions of dollars and lasts almost six months of every year.
Personally, I’ve always preferred a wooden bat and I used to argue for hours with my little league coaches to let me use my wooden bat. An awesome black Louisville Slugger with Ken Griffey Jr’s name embossed on the side. My younger brother has been using the same type and size of wooden bat since high school. But this is also how our father and our grandfather played baseball and it was what we were taught at home a long time before we were ever formally coached. I still swing a wooden bat and maybe that makes me biased, but there’s plenty of reasons aluminum bats are banned from pro ball. Wooden bats have been there since the beginning.
