Preserving Player or Pleasing Fans (on Ncaa Baseball Bat Regulations)

Student 15

English 2000-70

Dr. C. Lewis

May 2, 2011

Preserving Players or Pleasing Fans

College baseball has had a unique past due to its controversial use of metal bats. While these bats allow players to hit the ball harder and farther than a typical wood bat could, they also cause injuries to players and, occasionally, spectators. The technology of baseball bats has greatly evolved over the years, allowing players to hit baseballs further, harder, and easier than ever before. During the 2011 college baseball season, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) put a rule into effect that requires college baseball teams to use a new type of metal bat that has affects similar to those of wood bats. Between faster developing technology and players using old metal bats, which gave a trampoline type effect when a ball hit them, the game of baseball was looking dangerous. The NCAA was forced to change their rules regarding bats used during the game. The new rule that requires teams to use the new bats, which act more as a wood bat, has a positive effect on the game.

NCAA baseball has become one of college’s top sports. Fans from across the country travel to Omaha, Nebraska every summer to attend the College World Series in hope that their team may win a national title. This year, college baseball has put a rule in effect that may change the game forever. The Collegiate Baseball Newspaper states that this rule requires all bats used by NCAA baseball teams to be under a certain bat-ball coefficient of restitution, also known as BBCOR. The BBCOR is essentially what gives bats the “trampoline effect” and causes a ball to be hit harder. The “trampoline effect” gives players using the traditional metal bat an advantage because when the ball makes contact with the bat, it basically bends like a rubber band and flings the ball off with more velocity (“Latest Info on New BBCOR Bats”). These metal bats with such high BBCOR’s are the reason that so...