01/27/2007 3:51 PM -
Baseball Youth Committee Statement on
Non-Wood Bats
USA
Baseball,
the National Governing Body (NGB) for the
sport of baseball as designated by the
Amateur Sports Act of 1978, recently held a
meeting of its National Youth Membership,
and on behalf of the following organizations
(American Amateur Baseball Congress (AABC)
American Legion Baseball Dixie Baseball
Little League Baseball, Inc. Babe Ruth
Baseball PONY Baseball National Baseball
Congress / Hap Dumont Baseball Amateur
Athletic Union (AAU) United States Sports
Specialties Association (USSSA) National
Police Athletic League (PAL) T-Ball
USA)
has released the following statement:
PERCEPTION:
Aluminum bats are more dangerous than wood
bats. The National Consumer Product Safety
Commission studied this issue and concluded
in 2002 that there is no evidence to
suggest that aluminum bats pose any
greater risk than wood bats. Multiple
amateur baseball governing bodies, including
the NCAA, National High School Federation,
Little League International, PONY, et al,
all track safety statistics and have
concluded that aluminum bats do not pose a
safety risk.
PERCEPTION:
The use of aluminum bats places children at
an unacceptable risk of injury. A study from
the
National Center for
Catastrophic Sports Injury
Research shows that there have been
only 15
catastrophic batted ball injuries to
pitchers out of more than 9,500,000 high
school and college participants since 1982.
During the last five years a number of
states, individual organizations, city
councils, and others have proposed the
banning of metal baseball bats on a number
of different levels. These actions have
typically been in reaction to a catastrophic
injury as opposed to being based on
creditable injury data or research. In May
of 2002 the Consumer Product Safety
Commission stated, “The
Commission is not aware of any information
that injuries produced by balls batted with
non-wood bats are more severe than those
involving wood bats".
This statement was true in 2002 and it is
true in 2007.
The Medical/Safety Advisory Committee of USA
Baseball was initiated due to the lack of
injury data needed to make decisions
affecting the safety of baseball
participants. Prior to 2005 there has not
been significant research comparing injuries
to baseball pitchers from metal bats versus
wood bats. In 2005 the USA Baseball
Medical/Safety Committee initiated a three
year research project comparing line drive
baseball injuries to pitchers from metal
bats and wood bats. Metal bat injury data
were taken from the National Collegiate
Athletic Association (NCAA) Injury
Surveillance System and wood bat injury data
collected from college summer leagues (NCAA
recognized college summer league teams all
use wood bats). After two years (2005 and
2006) of collecting batted ball injury data
to the pitcher from 93 NCAA college baseball
teams and 246 college summer league teams
there have only been 17 injuries to NCAA
college pitchers and 15 injuries to college
summer league pitchers. Only 32 injuries
after 331,821 balls were hit into play
(Balls hit into play are calculated by
taking the number of at bats and subtracting
strike outs and bases on balls). The
injuries in the summer leagues were more
severe than the NCAA injuries. One-third of
the summer league injuries involved the head
and face as opposed to none in the NCAA. The
third year of the study will be completed in
2007.
What this data does indicate is that
injuries to the pitcher from batted balls
are very rare and can happen while using
metal or wood bats. There is no data to
indicate that the few catastrophic injuries
to baseball pitchers from metal bats would
not have happened if the batter was using a
wood bat. Before any sport makes rule
changes, equipment changes, or other changes
related to the safety of the participants,
it is imperative that these changes are
based on reliable injury data and not
anecdotal information.
USA Baseball is the National Governing Body
of amateur baseball in the and a member of
the United States Olympic Committee. The
organization selects and trains the USA
Baseball National Team, the USA Baseball
Junior National Team (18-under), the USA
Baseball Youth National Team (16-under), the
USA Baseball 14-U National Team (14-under),
and the USA Baseball Women’s National Team
which participate in various international
competitions each year.
www.usabaseball.com
