What I want to do here is discuss experimental evidence that a trampoline effect really does seem to be partly responsible for improvement in performance of aluminum bats over wood. Because the barrel of an aluminum bat is hollow, the distribution of mass along the length of a metal bat is considerably different than it is for a solid wood bat. Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens delivered an inside pitch to Mets catcher Mike Piazza. The point I want to make, however, is that Piazza's bat broke. The barrel, where the walls are thinner, may dent - or even crack if the walls are too thin, the but bat will not break. Aluminum is superior to wood because it is lighter and can be swung faster, resulting in balls being driven farther. This is directly related to the swing weight of a bat - the reason that not all 28oz softball bats swing the same. A side effect was that the ball goes a bit further off the aluminum bat than it does the wood. Not only does this mean they can get to pitches faster, but they can … "Any idiot can see that the ball jumps off an aluminum bat faster than off of a wooden bat," said Jim Morris, head baseball coach at the University of Miami. Youth and college players can use metal bats. Stodden and J.R. Andrews, "Relationship between bat mass properties and bat velocity," Sports Eng., 5, 1-8 (2002) [8] G.S. Use of a metal bat is somewhat controversial. Most college and high schools use aluminum bats because they dont break and they are on budgets. Apparently a player in the 2003 Women's College Softball World Series also broke an aluminum bat. So, it can happen. I grew up using wooden baseball bats until I reached college baseball. No bat which currently passes the NCAA performance standards will perform as high as the best metal bats in the Crisco-Greenwald study. They are banding them because they cause more injury and for the balls to go farther. Professional leagues use wooden baseball bats, but at all levels of amateur play, including college play, players use metal bats. Omaha puts up a lot of cash and all the teams are endorsed by metal bat makers. Messier, B.S. [3] L.R. Aluminum is much stronger than ash wood, and the handle of an aluminum bat is a thin cylindrical tube with reasonably thick walls (thicker than the barrel portion). Do the Detroit Tigers have the best front office in basball and can it be believed? Figure 4 shows the Bat-Ball Coefficient-of-Restitution (which measures the combined elastic properties of the bat-ball system) as a function of hoop frequency. In the complete analysis of all of the data, bat M1 was found to perform statistically the same as a wood bat, while bats M3 and M4 were noticeably better and bat M2 was dramatically better. The data shows an average batted ball speed for wood bats (W) around 98.6-mph, while balls hit with metal bats (M1-M5) left the bat with speeds averaging between 100.3 mph and 106.5-mph, up to 8-mph faster than wood bats. Performance of hollow metal bats is due to the trampoline effect. “[The Worth bats] made a pinging noise,” he said. Penna, "Batting performance of wood and metal baseball bats," Med. If major league baseball players used them we’d just be watching a game full of home runs. They learn while playing in highschool and college that inside pitches get hit for runs. Likewise hitters often find it to be considerably difficult to make the change from aluminum to wood, especially when dealing with inside pitches. I started playing college baseball in the mid 1970’s right when metal bats came on the market and were authorized for competitive use. Many new rules and regulations in college baseball dictate the materials permitted in college baseball bats. A side effect was that the ball goes a bit further off the aluminum bat than it does the wood. The data also shows that not all metal bats are the same. Figure 2 compares the balance points of four 30" youth bats: three wood bats of weights 26oz, 23oz, and 20oz, and an 27oz aluminum bat. Greenwald, "Metal baseball bats can outperform wood bats with a similar `sweet spot'," Proceedings of the 24th Annual Meeting, American Society of Biomechanics. Because of shortages of quality wood, and the higher cost of good quality bats, most college teams completely switched over to aluminum bats during the 1980's. I measured the frequency of the mode of vibration in the barrel, called the hoop mode, which gives rise to the trampoline effect. Aluminum is lighter and more durable, and aluminum bats are easier to swing than wood bats of equal size, making them ideal for younger players … Clemens picked up the broken bat and threw it towards Piazza as he ran towards first. An aluminum/ceramic composite/graphite composite bat costs about 300 to 400 dollars and lasts approx 8 to 10 years befopre needing replaced. In other words, I simply want to provide an explanation, backed up with experimental evidence, why it might be possible for a metal bat to outperform a wood bat. Biomech., 17, 241-252 (2001). 2, pp. You may be wondering why high school and college baseball players use aluminum bats but league players use wooden bats? Originally, it was because aluminum bats last a lot longer. Crisco and Greenwald defined the sweet spot as the range of locations on the bat barrel for which the highest 10% of batted ball speeds were obtained. Get your answers by asking now. <<>> In a hollow bat, however, the bat barrel compresses somewhat like a spring, when the ball impacts it. In addition, the hardness and resilience of aluminum can result in much greater speeds when the ball comes off the bat. This advantage is a little tougher to scientifically validate - partly because the "sweet spot" is a term used to mean several different things relating to both the perception of feel and a measure of performance. Greenwald, "Batted Ball Speed as a Function of Swing Speed and Impact Location," presented at the 2001 Annual SGMA Baseball/Softball Industry Meeting, Chicago, IL (2001). Sports Exerc., 34(10), 1675-1684 (2002) Wooden bats are the only bat that is allowed in major league baseball mainly for protection of the athletes playing the field and more specifically the pitcher. The most comprehensive study comparing metal and wood bats under realistic playing conditions that I have come across was published by Crisco and Greenwald. [14] Robert K. Adair, The Physics of Baseball, 3rd Ed., (HarperCollins, 2002), Metal baseball bats can outperform wood bats with a similar `sweet spot', Batted Ball Speed as a Function of Swing Speed and Impact Location, "Hoop frequency as a predictor of performance for softball bats, So what does it mean that a player using an aluminum bat can hit a ball 8-mph faster than he could with a wood bat? Over the past forty years, an overwhelming majority of players have chosen to use them rather than their wooden counterparts. [1] The study was conducted with six skilled college players during more than a dozen batting practice sessions over a 5-day period. As pretty much any hitter who has used both metal and wooden baseball bats can tell you, metal bats are vastly superior. Join Yahoo Answers and get 100 points today. Keep reading to learn about the benefits of each type […] [6] J.J. Crisco, R.M. Aluminum is the material most commonly used for baseball bats from little league through high school and college. Burkett, S.S. Chen, G.S. ELI5: Why do college baseball players still use aluminum bats? Data was collected for each player until 30 line drives were produced within a certain range of locations in the outfield. Federal judge in Iowa ridicules Trump's pardons, Sanders speaks out on McConnell’s additions to bill, After release, 31 teams pass on Dwayne Haskins, International imposter attack targets government aid, Wage gap kept women from weathering crisis: Expert, Trump asks Supreme Court to set aside Wisconsin's election, Dawn Wells, Mary Ann on 'Gilligan's Island,' dies at 82, Pope Francis's native country legalizes abortion, Don't smear all Black players because of Dwayne Haskins, Americans in Wuhan fearful for U.S. relatives, Halsey apologizes for posting eating disorder pic. Wooden bats are heavier and solid, whereas aluminum and titanium bats are much lighter and hollow. This can be explained if the metal bat has a trampoline effect which returns more of the energy to the ball. They were not able to explain differences in this effect between the five metal bats they tested, and so could not explain how the trampoline effect improves performance. Figure 4. [4] But, their data does not show a difference in the size of the sweet spot for wood and aluminum bats. Baseball is a great game, and wooden bats keep the fun, traditional aspects of baseball, while making it entertaining and safe for both players and fans. The bars in the chart represent the average and spread for the top 10% (ie, fastest 10%) of all hits across all players for each bat. [1] F.O. Actually, I might like it! http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/27/earlysho... Why do people even watch baseball cause let's be honest it has got to be the most boring sport in the world ? As such, the bat handle is very strong and will not break. Major league baseball has required that its players use wooden bats, but the aluminum bat has come to dominate the lower levels of baseball, from Little League to the college game. Marucci Cat8 -3 College Baseball Bat. Because it's legal to use aluminum bats, since the aluminum bats create more vibration the ball flys further giving potential scouts the illusion that they can hit the ball further than they probably could with a wooden bat. There is one paper from 1977, when aluminum bats were just beginning to assert their prominence, which concluded that the batted ball speed of an aluminum baseball bat was about 3.85 mph faster than a wood baseball bat. 1, show conclusively that metal bats outperform wood bats. As aluminum alloy gives the bat a lightweight, well-formed, balanced and sturdy structure which is not easily possible in other forms of baseball bats. Hester and K. Koenig, "Performance measurement of baseball bats," Journal of the Mississippi Academy of the Sciences, 38(2), 7-10 (1993) A professional baseball player swinging at a ball as hard as they can could be detrimental to the players in the line of fire of a ball hit off a lighter bat. One of the most obvious differences in college baseball is the use of metal bats, which was first permitted by the NCAA back in 1975. Originally, it was because aluminum bats last a lot longer. In 1987 it cost about $3000/year more for wooden bats than aluminum ones, and that’s only gone up since—for all but the top DI teams, that’s a significant cost, and for D3 teams it could be prohibitive. Traditionally, wooden bats were used because they were the only option. That is why I believe aluminum bats should be banned from high school and college baseball. baseball - is curt schilling's politics keeping him out of the hall of fame? 35 Years of Aluminum Bat Wandering. Penna , and J.J. Crisco,"Differences in Batted Ball Speed with Wood and Aluminum Baseball Bats: A Batting Cage Study," J. Appl. Most college teams can get by with 12 aluminum bats per season, as opposed to more than 5 dozen wood bats per season.[12]. [5] R.M. 12-17 (2003) Each player would take several swings with either a wood or aluminum bat (randomly chosen), rest for 10 minutes, then take several swings with the other bat. [12] Julavrits, "Bat Rap," Sport, 90(6), 26 (June, 1999) This answer might seem a little obvious, but think about it! That’s why wooden bats have always be… Personally, I might as well have gone to the plate with a wet sock than a wood bat. Greenwald R.M., L.H. This regulation allows the players to have enough time to react to the ball once it is hit. [7] Smith, L, Broker, J, Nathan, A, “A Study of Softball Player Swing Speed,” Sports Dynamics Discovery and Application, Edited by A. Subic, P. Trivailo, and F. Alam, RMIT University, Melbourne Australia, pp. There are no studies showing increase in injury due to use of non-wood bats and the rules currently make it such that the ball rebounds about the same from a non-wood bat ( called BESR rating) as from wood. 28-38, (Prentice Hall, 1997) In contrast the aluminum bat is actually heavier, but since its balance point is more than an inch closer to the handle it will be easier to swing. Many of the marketing ploys regarding the size of the sweet spot often refer to the perception that a given bat is more forgiving (ie., balls still go far, and bat feels good) for impacts away from the sweet spot. Supporters of an aluminum or composite bat note that it can increase offensive performance, as the speed of a ball off a metal bat is generally faster than off a wood bat. Wood bats have been a big part of my baseball life. This is why most college teams switched to aluminum in the early 1980s, because wood bats would break a lot, high quality wood was harder to find, and so wood bats became more expensive. Aluminum bats make inside pitches singles and the bats don't break. They are starting to band aluminum bats so I can't answer your question. Aluminum. Sports Exerc., 21, 199-205 (1989) The plot clearly shows that the higher performing bats have a lower hoop frequency, which indicates that the simple mass-spring model of the trampoline effect captures the essential physics. It definetly is a money issue, because the aluminum one last longer, while they probably get new bats each season, its better then having to spend for a new batch weekly with wooden breaks. High speed video was used to obtain a 3-D map of the bat swing, locating the trajectory of several points on the bat and ball before, during, and after impact. Aluminum bats would be much too light for Major League Baseball. From my analysis of various hollow softball bats I have shown that the frequency of the hoop mode correlates pretty well with performance. [11] Similarly, college teams which used wood bats often broke more than two dozen during a season. Then there is performance. That’s due to one major factor—the weight of the barrel is heavier in wood bats. While aluminum bats are common from little league to college baseball, MLB remains steadfast in its use of wooden bats. While watching ESPN Sports Center one night towards the end of May 2003, I saw a clip from a college game in which a metal bat shattered leaving the batter holding the handle and half the barrel while the other half of the barrel flew out and landed next to the shortstop. The 1989 study found that the rebound speed of the ball depended strongly on impact location, and somewhat on how strongly the player was gripping the bat. This means that the ball is not compressed as much and therefore loses less energy to internal friction forces. The NCAA is the highest level of amateur baseball where regulations allow players to hit with aluminum bats. The reason why high schools and colleges use aluminum bats over wood is … Still have questions? Most noticeably is the fact that the ball will travel farther. The results were an average batted ball speed (for line drives) of 88.6 mph for the wood bat and 92.5 mph for the aluminum bat. Piazza's bat broke and the barrel portion bounced out towards Clemens on the mound. Thus, the bats used in this study are not representative of aluminum bats allowed for use at high school and college levels under current NCAA rules. In all three cases the balls left the bat at a height of 2.6 feet above the ground and at an initial angle of 35. You can sign in to vote the answer. Fleisig, N. Zheng, D.F. The issue is … 641-647 (International Sports Engineering Association, 2004). [5,6] Their study involved actual players swinging bats at pitched balls in a batting cage. Russell, " "Hoop frequency as a predictor of performance for softball bats," Engineering of Sport 5, Vol. July 19-22 (2000). New alloys and treatment processes (cryogenic treatment) even improve the strength of the aluminum further. Because the NCAA views wood bats as a “burdensome” or “hardship” cost. The study found that the aluminum bat appeared to have a larger COP than the wood bat. The physics behind the trampoline effect is somewhat complex, though a simple model can be used to illustrate the main concepts, as explained elsewhere on this website. A third study in the early 1990's also concluded that metal bats performed no better than wood bats. Bad side effect: it comes off the bat faster and if yo happen to be the pitcher who gets it with a line drive, that's bad. 6 shows ball trajectories for varying batted ball speeds. Well, It might seem kind of cool when you first think about it, but don’t we want our pros to really show some skills to muscle a home run? Aluminum bats were introduced long before modern sponsorships; they were legalized because of the sharply rising costs of wooden bats. The batted-ball speeds measured in the Crisco-Greenwald study are significantly higher than batted-ball speeds obainted with bats which currently pass the NCAA performance standards. The data from the Crisco-Greenwald study should NOT be used to argue against the use of aluminum bats because this data does not represent the status of bat performance under current NCAA rules. Are Baseball fans some of the MEANEST, SNOBBIEST & MOST OBNOXIOUS FANS IN ALL OF SPORTS. If bats were lighter, players would be able to swing with a greater force than they are able to with wooden bats, making it easier for professional players to hit a pitch. The figure shows that for a given swing speed, the metal bat can potentially hit the ball 5-7mph faster than the wood bat. They are pretty fun to hit with and i believe it makes for a more exciting baseball game. Sci. Bats with lower hoop frequency (more compliant barrels) have increased performance. Furthermore, most of the energy temporarily stored in the barrel is returned to the ball, and the energy which is lost in the bat compression is a small fraction of what would have been lost in the ball if it had impacted a wood bat instead. Disclaimer: While the results were not published in peer-reviewed research journals until 2000-2001, the data for the Crisco-Greenwald batting cage study was collected during 1997-1998. Balls were pitched from both pitching machines and regular batting practice pitchers, but pitchers were found to be more consistent. This means that baseball players can swing an aluminum bat with much more speed than they could with a wooden bat. Video data was then analyzed to obtain batted ball speeds. Thus baseball programs get but a pittance, and cannot afford to splurge on wooden bats, which break, and must go with aluminum, which do not. The metal bat was implemented in college baseball in 1975. Not all baseball bats are made the same. I agree with Dave - they use them because they're cheaper overall - and they're bad for the game. Aluminum baseball bats first came onto the scene back in the early 1970s, and over the years have gradually phased out wooden bats in youth baseball mainly for economic reasons. The first aluminum bats were heavy and did not perform much differently than wood bats. Under NCAA regulations, all surplus monies must be funnelled to the football and basketball programs, mostly to be spent on bail bonds or sports cars. One of the priniciple conslusions of the Criso-Greenwald study is that for metal and wood bats with similarly sized sweet spots, the batted ball speed will be higher for the metal bat. As previosly mentioned a side effect is the distance and speed that the ball come off the aluminum, while they are not banning them and a previous person commented, they are requiring the companies to make them perform the specifications of wood, mostly to keep people from getting killed. Major League Baseball players can't use aluminum bats because wooden bats maintain historical continuity, keep offenses reasonable and improve safety for players on the field. The closer the CM to the handle of the bat, the easier it is to swing the bat. During the Summer of 2004 I was granted access to the five metal bats used in their batting cage study. Aluminum bats are extremely dangerous to infielders because of the speed they generate and the force behind the batted ball. There was already some bad feelings between the two players because Clemens had hit Piazza with an inside pitch the previous year, and the broken bat incident only increased the animosity between the two players. Most college teams can get by with 12 aluminum bats per season, as opposed to more than 5 dozen wood bats per season. [2] In this study balls were shot from a pitching machine towards bats held stationary (without swinging) in the hands of a player. [9] J.J. Crisco and R.W. Where as an aluminum bat can last the entire season. Crisco & Greenwald were only able to conclude that an "inherent elastic property" of the bat was most likely present to explain the difference in batted- ball speeds shown in Figure 3. In comparison to the metal bats used today, Valesente said the quality of the Worth bats was not up to par. [11] Phil Patton, "Wooden bats still reign supreme at the old ball game," Smithsonian, 15, 152-165 (1990) A second phase of the study attempted to explain the increase in performance of the aluminum bat by comparing the size of the "sweet spot" for the two bats by locating the center-of-percussion. Bat-Exit Speed Standards Aluminum bats are used in college, high school and little league ball, but they're illegal in the major leagues where hitters must use wooden bats. A total of 19 players (nine minor-leaguers, six NCAA college, four high school) participated in the study, swinging two wood bat models, and 5 different metal bat models (6 bats of each model). Chicago, IL. Other You'd think with how many players there are in minor league system that come out of college, they'd want to get accustomed to using wooden bats like in the pros. Because college players use aluminum bats, they can hit inside pitches for base hits. Specically, the difference shows up in the location of the center-of-mass (CM) - otherwise known as the balance point. In contrast to the 1977 study, a 1989 study concluded that metal bats did not outperform wood bats. The solid curve is a theoretical prediction from my simple mass-spring model of the trampoline effect, and the data points represent the measured BBCOR values (extracted from the original field study data by my friend and colleague Alan Nathan) for the five metal bats used in the Grisco-Greenwald batting cage study. In almost every professional game one or more players breaks a bat on an inside pitch. ? Instead I would like to look at the physics of baseball bats and investigate the scientific data to support the claim that metal bats perform better than wood bats. [3] This third study compared four baseball bats: two wood, one aluminum, and one composite. Balls were pitched towards an initially stationary bat and the rebound speed of the ball was measured, with the result that aluminum and wood bats performed the same. Why Wood Bats? Blume, and L.H. None of the 5 aluminum bats in this study would be legal today. But there are options for players to consider based on their bat speed and hand strength. Krahenbuhl, and P. Lu, "Dynamic and performance characteristics of baseball bats," Research Quarterly, As a result, fewer and fewer younger professional pitchers throw inside pitches than used to be the norm in years past. The aluminum baseball bat was introduced into college baseball in 1974 as an economical answer to rising costs of replacing the large number of wood bats that were being broken during a season. They found that the width of the sweet spot was nearly the same for all bats (wood and metal) bats tested. I support the movement to ban aluminum bats from all leagues, just to keep the kids safer. 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