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Insight
Shattering Maple
Bats New Hazard
in Major League
Baseball
United States
In recent years, there has been a rising incidence of maple baseball bats
shattering spectacularly and hurtling through the air like javelins injuring
players and spectators.
Pittsburgh Pirates hitting coach, Don Long, was struck by fragments
of a flying maple bat suffering a gash to his face leaving him with nerve
damage.
“I was lucky. It could have hit me in the eye,” said Long.
The problem has become so prevalent that Major League Baseball has
ordered a second investigation into why maple bats are snapping and barrels
are ricocheting around baseball fields everywhere. There are as many as half
a dozen broken in each game.
Infielders and pitchers are particularly at risk. However in some ven-
ues, such as Wrigley Field, spectators are equally at risk due to their close
proximity to home plate.
“Usually when you hear the bat crack and it starts flying, your main
concern is that bat, as opposed to the ball,” said White Sox third baseman
Joe Crede. “It’s a matter of time before something bad happens, before the
sharp end of the bat hits somebody.”
Traditionally, baseball bats were made of ash. Many players still use
ash bats, but since the late 1990s there has been an explosion in popularity
of maple bats following Barry Bonds’ record 73 homeruns in 2001. Today,
as many as three quarters of hitters are using maple bats.
When maple bats started flying in force about three years ago, MLB
required bat distributors to carry $10 million in liability insurance.
Insiders speculate that this problem will continue without abate until
a high-salaried pitcher is cut in the arm or the face or a spectator threatens
a lawsuit after being hit by a bat fragment.
Proposed solutions include the unpopular suggestion with players of
banning maple bats or surrounding fields with netting as has been done
in the National Hockey League after a 13-year old was struck by a flying
puck.
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