smokehard

At long last America has reached its pinnacle by combining two American traditions:  Little League baseball and lawsuits.

WAYNE, N.J. — The family of a boy who suffered brain damage after being struck in the chest by a line drive off a metal bat while playing baseball filed a lawsuit Monday morning against the manufacturer of the bat, the store that sold it, and against Little League Baseball for giving the bat its seal of approval. ESPN

I don’t even know where to begin with this one.  As a former player, I think this is just ridiculous.  I started university when the changes were first made to make bats “minus threes”, meaning that the weight (30 ounces, for example) minus the length (33 inches) should be minus three.  This was a change from the previous standard of minus five.  At the same time they also reduced the size of the barrel.  It was reduced, if I remember correctly, from 3 3/4 to 3 5/8.  It may not sound like a big reduction, but it certainly makes a huge difference.  Of course, these changes came as new alloys introduced into bat making made the walls of bats thinner, the sweet spots larger, and drastically reduced the life span of the bat.  At the same time players at all levels of the game were getting stronger and needed to even the playing field between pitchers and hitters.

With that background out of the way, these little league bats are -11s.  So, a 30 inch bat will weigh 19 ounces.  Granted, that is a little ridiculous, even for a kid, but I still don’t see it being cause for a lawsuit.  It’s no secret that stepping onto a baseball field, regardless of the level, is dangerous.  There are bats.  There are balls. There are moving bats.  There are moving balls.  If his parents let him step onto the field it’s an automatic recognition of the risks, and all that entails, of the game.  After all, if his parents were so opposed to the bats being used did they forbid their child from using the same style bat?  Did they send him to the plate with a wooden bat?  Of course not.

But, apparently someone has to be blamed when things go accidentally, yet tragically, wrong.

NOTE:  For some reading on the performance difference between wooden and aluminum bats visit here.