Introduction

When baseball was still a young sport, wood was the only option players had to work
with. Now, with the advancement in technology of the bats being used, many bats have been
deemed illegal due to regulations that have been made to create a safer environment for players.
This regulation was a major switch up for hitters because the bats that are now allowed to be
used do not have near the pop that the old, BESR bats had. The consistency of power with the
new BBCOR bats have made the playing field more level because there is no longer that one or
two bats that were just so much better than every other bat. The majority of BBCOR bats now
are made from mostly the same material. Although wood bats are the most commonly used, for
the leagues that do not primarily use wood bats, these regulations, BESR and BBCOR, were
created to keep the game competitive and interesting, as well as safe enough for younger people
to play. After discussion has emerged, the baseball community has questioned which bat has the
best pop or hits the best. Scientists have done studies to show results of hitting with a wood
bat compared with a metal bat and a composite bat. This new regulation made the game more
interesting because this material doesnt let the ball come off the bat as hard or as fast. What I
am interested in studying is which material of bat, wood, alloy, or composite, is/was the best to
use regarding the regulations each bat follows. I will share throughout factual information about
the history of, and studies done on, the different types of baseball bats as well as share my
personal opinion about the bats the I have had experiences with and how that will relate to my
research.

Entering the Conversation

There is so much that I could say about the differences and effectiveness of aluminum
and composite bats compared to wood bats. Throughout the years of my baseball days, I
primarily used a bat that wasnt wood. I always liked hitting an aluminum bat rather than a
composite bat just because of the feel that I liked. I always liked to be able to feel the
vibration of the ball when it makes contact with the bat. You can always tell when you hit the
ball just right in the middle of the sweet spot. My personal preference has nothing to do with the
facts of which bat really is indeed better than the others but it could influence others as the feel
of wood bats compared to composite bats and also aluminum bats will feel different to different
people. Such a difference as someone who wears batting gloves and someone who doesnt, such
as myself, will have a major impact on how the bat will feel to that person when it comes in
contact with the ball. The difference in the vibrations the bat gives off from the handle compared
to the sweet spot and also the end of the bat vary tremendously. If the ball is hit closer to the
handle, the vibrations will be a lot more intense than if it were hit off the end and that being more
intense than if the ball were hit in the sweet spot. The sweet spot is the region of the bat with the
most pop or trampoline power. It starts at about two inches from the end cap and stretches
about five to seven inches down the barrel towards the handle. It typically ends about three
inches from where the taper of the handle begins. The sweet spots on most wood bats are
smaller that they are on composite or aluminum bats, which basically have the same size sweet
spot considering those type of bats follow the same regulations (BESR, BBCOR, etc). That is
one of the reasons why the MLB still uses wood bats rather than not wood bats because it is
harder to make solid contact right in the middle of the sweet spot.
Lit Review

Baseball bats have evolved and have changed the way the game is played due to the
material that bats are legally allowed to be made out of. Wooden bats (Mussill, 2000) have
always been the most common form of baseball bat, but there have also been made from metal as
well as another material called composite which is a mixture of carbon, fiber glass, and other
compounds. With the sport getting more intense and dangerous (Cain, 2014) over time,
regulations have had to be made on the bats that are able to be used to keep people from getting
injured as well as to make homeruns not as big of a factor in close games. The introduction of
alloy bats in the 1970s and composite bats in the early 2000s had a lot to do with the making of
these regulations because the players were starting to hit the ball at unsafe speeds as well as the
games were starting to become much more higher scoring all around. This was due to the fact
that the metallic bats had a lot more pop and propulsion of the ball off the bat.
With the regulations of bats changing, a study was done on childrens wood and nonwood
small barrel baseball bats and nonwood big barrel bats to test the BPF (Jones, Sherwood, Drane,
2008) or bat performance factor. Using experimental data, scientist studied that nonwood big
barrel bats had the highest BPF followed by the nonwood small barrel and then the wood small
barrel. This data was analyzed and plugged into the formulas used to measure different statistics
and evaluations of different regulations of bats.
With the new regulation of BBCOR bats (ATC, 2012) , the game of baseball could be in
for a drastic change. This article explained that with the new bats being very similar in the
dimensions and power of wooden bats, BBCOR bats are said to make games closer as they do
not hit as hard as original metal bats. BBCOR bats were made to make the game safer as the
material of the bat dampers the speed and velocity of the ball coming off the bat.(Nicholls, 2005)
The risk of danger with using metal bats in amatuer baseball leagues has led to some officiates

banning all metal bats from play and only allowing wood bats to be used.(Palanzo, 2011) With
companies making metal bats that hit like wood bats, one of the major concerns, other than
safety, is the financial commitment to buy a BBCOR bat versus a wooden bat.
When comparing wood bats to metal and composite bats, there are a few factors to be
taken into consideration: the model of the bat, the type of baseball used when hitting the bats, the
dimensions of the bat, the hitters swing speed, etc.(Shenoy, Smith, Axtell, 2001) Wood is not as
strong as metal so the ball is not going to come off a wood bat harder and farther than it would a
metal bat. In some cases it may, but in a controlled environment and experiment, the comparison
of the two bats werent significantly different but there is an overall difference in the velocity of
the ball coming off each bat.(Russell, 2005)
With the recent technological advances, baseball bats have definitely become more
advanced in their molecular build and durability. (Wilmot, 2006) The population of baseball
players has become increasingly concerned with the safety of one another regarding how much
power a bat can have when the contact of the ball to the bat causes an increase in speed on the
ball. Players have to be careful when around or playing in a baseball game because literally balls
will be flying and there is always a potential injury that could happen after every pitch if
everyone on the field wasnt paying attention. The advancement of materials and prominence of
aluminum bats has increased rapidly since its arrival to the baseball market in the early 1970s.
Aluminum bats have had a significant toll on the game of baseball as well as the economy that is
supported by baseball players. With studies and tests to prove the difference and dominance a
metal bat has compared to a wood bat, it has been shown that the technology inside these bats are
intricate yet durable and can possibly cause a great deal of injury to other players in the field.
(Gonzales, 2010)

Conclusion
Throughout the study of this research, it has come to my attention that the different types
of baseball bats do have a big effect on how well the ball is hit. With this being said, the
difference in the bats have an impact on the the game as the bats can, when used to hit will vary
in the average distance of the ball meaning that the better bats do get better hits. It has been
tested and analyzed that metal compound and composite bats do in fact hit better than wood bats.
The regulations of bats enforced are also a huge factor in the differences of the bats used over
time. As the regulations have changed, so has the game itself. The bats getting more and more
powerful through the years are what caused the regulations because it was beginning to be unfair
to everyone playing as batters could take tremendous advantage of the power in the bats just by
simply making contact. The regulations in the sport have made the playing field of hitters more
even because the rules made it to where the bats were more similar to each other regarding size,
weight, and material. As the power of the bats increased, so did the intensity of the game. I
would like to know why these regulations were made and why was there ever an option to
upgrade or modernize the material a bat is made out of. If the modern regulations are slowly
making the bats that are legal to use more and more similar to wood bats, why was there ever the
motion to make the most common bat a metallic or composite material bat? I think that the game
of baseball will eventually result back into the only legal bat able to be used. In my personal
opinion, I wish that all leagues would use the old BESR regulation because those bats were the
most powerful and it made the game more interesting. I think there is still a lot of questions to
be answered about what material of bat is statistically better than the rest and what the future
regulations of legal bats will hold in the sport of baseball.

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