The recent debate in college baseball and softball

is whether or notwood bats should be used to replace metal bats. There is a just argument
for both sides of this debate. New York Yankees coach Joe Torre has come
out publicly and said that he would love to see the game go back to wood
bats. He is not the only major league coach that would like to this change.Coaches Tony Larussa of the St. Louis Cardinals and Lou Pinella of the
Tampa Bay Devil Rays agree that would bats would be better for the game.

Some opponents feel that wood bats would change the game too much.They go on to say that wood bats break and would therefore cost more.Opponents will also bring up the lack of home runs and long balls hit,
things that we have become accustomed to with metal bats. However, I feel
that wood bats would heighten the game of baseball by forcing players to be
better hitters, saving people money in the long run, and also by preventing
injury by way of a batted ball.Wood bats force a player to become a better hitter as well a more
disciplined hitter. Unlike a metal bat, where a ball can be hit nearly
anywhere on the bat, a wooden bat will break if a ball is hit incorrectly.

A single wayward swing can cost a player a bat when they are dealing with
wood. Wooden bats also have a different weight distribution than metal bats
making them heavier and slightly different to swing. The difference in the
feel although small, can make a catastrophic difference in a swing. A metal
bat creates a great margin for error.

A wood bat removes most of that
margin thus making the hitter focus more and that is what makes a player
better.Broken bats are a major concern when it comes down to what bat to
use. Personal experience has proven the common idea that wood bats break
all the time is not correct at all. In fact, I have two wooden bats and I
have had them longer than any of the five metal bats that I own. Yes, wood
bats break but only if they are used incorrectly.

It took me about twenty
minutes to explain to my nine year old niece how to use a wood bat. The
going price for a wood bat is about fifty dollars and for a metal bat it is
about two hundred and fifty or three hundred dollars. Metal bats cost
nearly six times as much and can break just as easily if used incorrectly.Personally, I would say that if a person takes the time to learn how to use
a wood bat correctly then they could save tons of money.

The biggest argument that you can make for wood bats is that they
could save lives. Baseballs batted from a metal bat can be nearly ten miles
per hour faster than those batted by a wooden bat. Every year there are
more and more advancements in the area of metal bats and with these
advancements come faster baseballs. The main player that is at risk is the
pitcher, who sits just sixty feet from the batter. This means that a
college pitcher could have a ball batted at him at one hundred and ten
miles per hour from just sixty feet away. That is faster than the speed of
most commercially built vehicles.

Wood bats not only slow the ball down,
but they also make is harder to hit a ball that fast. Overall, a wood bat
does not take away injury but it does decrease the chances of a player
getting hit with a sharply hit baseball.In conclusion, I feel that the advantages of a wood bat far out weigh
those of its counterpart the metal bat. It would show us who the real
hitters are at the lower levels. I think that it would also save parents
money and some anxiety about their child getting injured. The fact that
metal bats have caused more deaths than wood bats is enough to sell me on
the idea that wood is better.

I just do not see how anyone could pass up
all these advantages when they look at the grand scheme of things.