Wood Or Metal: Which Bat Is The Best?
The wood versus metal bat debate is not an issue in major league baseball. Major League players must play with a wooden bat. High school and Little League baseball teams, however, have a choice between the two. There are pros and cons for each type of bat, and each side has strong proponents arguing their favorite bat is the best.
Wood bats were of course the first bats used in baseball, and they remain hugely popular. Made of ash, maple, hickory, or bamboo, wood bats are heavier and harder to swing than metal bats. They don’t have rubber or leather comfort grips on their handles to make holding the bat easier. For a new player, and especially a young player, the bats can unwieldy and too heavy for them to manage. They have a much smaller so-called “sweet spot,” the part of the bat that is best for hitting the ball with, than do metal bats.
On the upside, new players who learn to play using wood bats are learning to play the game with bats that are regulation for the major leagues. Any player with any hopes to advance that far in their baseball career must be able to perform with a wood bat. Additionally, wood bats are far safer than metal bats. The ball comes off the bat much more slowly than it does from metal bats, called the exit speed. Though no official studies definitively show that wood bats cause fewer injuries than metal bats, several high profile deaths of young pitchers hit by fastballs coming off of metal bats have caused wood bats to gain in popularity in youth leagues.
While wood bats are gaining in popularity with high school and little league teams, metal bats still have their fans. The bats are much lighter than wood bats and are easier for new and young players to learn to hit with. They have larger sweet zones than wood bats, giving players the widest zone in which to hit the ball. Because the bats are light, and because of the large sweet spot, they are also a favorite with high school baseball players hoping to be scouted for college teams. The light bats can help a mediocre hitter look like a standout player. Metal bats, which are usually made of aluminum or titanium, have come on leaps and bounds from their inception. They used to be flimsy and last a season at most. If they didn’t break completely, they would be too lumpy at the end of the season to keep. Nowadays, metal bats are stronger and can last through several seasons.
Metal bats still remain dangerous, though. Because of their lightweight, the bats can be tossed and injure another player. The exit speed of a ball coming off a metal bat is dangerous to the pitcher and anyone else at whom it takes aim.
One of the biggest benefits of metal bats used to their cost; they used to be significantly less expensive than wood bats. This is no longer true, however, with some metal bats coming in at $400 or more. Wood bats can be as cheap as $80.
Another con of metal bats is that players who learn to play with metal bats exclusively will be unprepared to take their baseball career all the way. Although only a small fraction of Little League and high school players actually advance to the Major Leagues, truly talented players will be at a disadvantage if they do not learn the game with a wood bat.
The wood bat or metal bat controversy has been going on for decades, but it may not be going on much longer. Local youth leagues and school districts are implementing their own bat policies, requiring teams to play with wood bats, in response to the increasing number of injuries and death blamed on fast moving balls coming off of metal bats. Experts expect it will not be long before national youth baseball leagues re-write their own bat policies. These policies currently only specify bat diameter, and that bats must be made of solid material. It is likely in the future that wood bats will become the norm.
