Wooden bats?? Aluminum bats?!?!?
When I was kid we didn’t have bats. We played baseball on the highway with STICKS and a ROCK! And that was AFTER walking five miles to school in the snow UPHILL EACH WAY! And you know what we got for Christmas? Used socks and underwear!! And we LIKED IT!!
23
Oh, thank goodness baseball won't end up looking like basketball or football where, you know, so many players are several shades from non-white. USA Baseball has delivered baseball from integration!
Basketball is furious they hadn't thought to price "official" basketballs in the hundreds, in order to keep the sport at least a little more "pure," as they might say.
And football, if only they had thought decades ago to allow only "kosher" pigskins, individually blessed, and priced way above any six year old's earnings. Why, then, we probably wouldn't be worrying ourselves sick over players kneeling during the anthem.
Good old capitalism-- it solves a lot of social "problems."
10
Yet another of the long-term innumberable signs of America's decline
5
I played organized baseball from age 7 until age 18, and I never owned a bat during that time, at least not one that I ever used in a game. The teams always had bats. Our league fees paid for them.
12
Sport is something kids do naturally and spontaneously before adults and money invade their playground. Then it becomes unnatural. But I suppose it provides an early introduction to the meat market of of the workforce.
Back in the 1950's we played a variety of ball games that emulated baseball in the narrow back alleys of Baltimore. We invented ground rules to accommodate the limitations of the alley. Dirt poor, we'd use cheap little red rubber balls. Older kids made their own by slicing an old tennis ball in half so it wouldn't fly far but demanded special skills from players to deal with its tricky aerodynamics. That was a hoot! The bat that both teams used was a salvaged broomstick. It was difficult but made possible by determination to have fun as skilled players coached and encouraged newcomers.
An adult might watch us for a moment but but didn't try to interfere. If they had, I think we'd have quit. Parents owned the house, teachers owned the classroom but those games in the alley belonged exclusively to us and that was magic!
I later played one summer of organized Little league and began to hate it halfway through the season. For love of the sport, I went back to playing in pickup sand lot games.
12
You have made me remember the stickball games on the Bronx streets of my youth.
3
this is so 21stcentury. it must be time to mess with the sport. in all honesty i see yearly larger crowds of children playing soccer. my question is did england create a useless but for the cricket teams already or is some american BAT maker own a part of englands companies also? valid question with the rush to destroy all fun from childhood and make baseball either "great" or "white again". you decide.
3
Just do what we do with all the other sports.....call it education and bury all the wasted education money spent on sports into our property taxes!
This is America.....where education takes a back seat to sports so the white establishment can keep the minorities in the ghetto by handicapping what they spend on education.
2
It's not the bats, it's not the gear. What is ruining kids sports is the adults. When you are young, you're supposed to PLAY sports.
9
How to turn fun into a disease...
2
Play lacrosse, it’s cheaper!
1
Baseball has a hard enough time attracting participation by kids from the inner cities. This decision is just DUMB and and smacks of elitism.
2
No, it's an attempt to equalize the game. The performance difference between a $75 bat and a $400 bat is enormous. The advantage given to those teams able to afford the better technology makes for an unfair advantage and makes a mockery of the game. It had to happen sooner or later, it just so happens that it's happening now. And it's not as if there wasn't plenty of warning.
4
This is a classic example of white privilege - it's pretty amusing to read the comments about people who already spend $300 on a baseball bat are concerned about shelling out a few dollars more. You can afford it.
Minorities and people of color do not play these sports due to the inherent barriers to entry - which include both dollar costs and social costs.
6
You appear not to have noticed the huge number of Spanish-speaking players in MLB. Minorities and people of color do not play these sports? Nonsense.
10
Ah, yes... the childhood joy of playing the game! When adults get their overbearing hands on a child's experience, they seem to unduly complicate it - in this case, if you don't have $500 at least to outfit your kid, s/he may not get to play. I think a lot of adults need to get their own hobbies, stop helicoptering, and let kids figure things out themselves.
7
Part of the problem is that kids aren't allowed to play outside by themselves. Parents actually get arrested for not supervising their kids outdoor play. How often do you drive by a playground and see a bunch of kids playing sports?
6
“This is a transition year, and we knew it would be difficult,” Paul Seiler, the executive director of U.S.A. Baseball, said. “There’s no plans to do this again in the future, and there are a wide range of prices available out there.”
I do not believe this statement for a minute. The rules changed twice while my son was playing Little League. (He's in college now.) It is ridiculously expensive to keep up with the enforced standards. The cynic in my wonders who is getting the kickbacks on the profit.
6
As a youth baseball coach and parent for the last 3 years, I have a few thoughts on this bat rule change. I think USA baseball did a good job of letting leagues know about the rule change. Last summer and fall, the bat change was all we talked about. We tried to tell parents to wait until after January first if they wanted to purchase a new bat. Many retailers actually began stocking the new USA baseball bats in September.
For all those commenting about the team offering team bats versus allowing kids to bring their own, I would only point out that those options are not mutually exclusive. In our town and travel leagues, each team has a number of bats and helmets, but a kid is free to bring their own if they like. Some kids have their own bat, and some use the team bats. So far in our town, it really hasn't been much of an issue.
Cost is certainly a problem for some families and sports like baseball and hockey are getting more and more cost prohibitive, which is a shame because there are talented kids who won't have the opportunity to play.
6
The only time I see kids on baseball/softball fields is when they are part of an organized, uniformed group. I never see any of them playing makeshift games or practicing. The organized, group activities are good for the kids, but making the most of what you have in other kids and limited equipment seems like a great training group for improvisation in adult life. Probably the prospect of having a $300 bat stolen when on the field with only two other kids makes such"play" activities prohibitive.
2
Wow!!! Sports at such a young age should be affordable, especially since kids will try a sport for a season or two and then switch to something else. This just happened this season when my nephews decided to give baseball a break and play lacrosse instead. And yes, some bats were bought in the process. One of my nephews played football last fall and I am happy to say the team provided most of the gear. Although he did insist on a pair of fancy gloves for catching the football. Both play soccer and one of them is a goalie so he needs special gloves. I am thinking back during my years of sports (and yes, I was fortunate to benefit from Title IX in its early days). My biggest expenses were a tennis racket and tennis shoes. I played Fall and Spring tennis which took me to a Division I school for tennis. Winter was basketball - basketball sneakers. There was also dance and basic dance attire. What about team bats? Not all towns and counties are made of money - what happens to the kid who cannot afford a fancy bat at age 10!
3
Glad I played sandlot baseball--much more fun, hardly any equipment costs, and real wood bats. Yes, they broke, and sometimes you could glue and tape one together again to get a few more games out of it....but we had fun, and it was still PLAY. Kids today are being "monetized"--their parents have to spend lots of money on the mandated equipment, and more of them look to get some kind of return for their investment. It's all too much a microcosm of capitalized America--no fun!
10
When I started playing, back in the late 60s, all you supplied was a pair of cleats and a glove, the league supplied EVERYTHING else. Sort of like when we were in school, we pretty much just showed up and everything was there, there was no supply list we had to fill like with our kids. Either you pay more to enter the league or you pay more to supply your own equipment.
3
I'm sure glad I was brought up in the era of pickup sandlot ball. I venture to guess we had much more fun than the current crop of Little Leaguers.
4
While I appreciate that this article is about LL and boys, it does remind me....My girls, 10 & 12 both play softball and were very excited to potentially play All-Stars, whose rules are governed not by our local Rec League, but USA Softball. The fees to play all stars is $1,000 per child, which includes their uniforms all the way from head to toes. It includes the league fees. It doesn’t include the travel, the hotel stays etc. Practice is Every single day, with every weekend taken to travel to play. One very kindly parent informed us, that if you can pay, you’re usually in, with no guarantee of ever actually playing. I’m sorry but $1K bench warmers we are not! We decided to enjoy summer and passed on All Stars. Who are the parents that can and do pay the insane fees to then have your kids use their whole summer to practice and travel all over? Why??
These are crazy first world problems that I’m thankful to avoid.
15
long-overdue reform since many of the modern metal bats are very dangerous on Little League fields. Bad combination of loaded bats, big kids/little kids, various skill levels and short distances. Softball too. But why should a "fair" bat be so expensive and what's wrong with wood?
4
Most people who play baseball will never play with a wood bat, whereas I have never played any other way. We still used wood in the 70s, and when I joined a 35+ league, it was also a wood bat league. Wood bats aren't exactly cheap, and they may literally only last one swing before they break, especially when kids are using them.
1
Why are kids allowed to have their own bats in a league sport? The team should have some standard bats and limit kids to those. Players with the best attitudes and/or aptitudes will have the most fun. They will learn that matters more in life than impressing others with the most expensive private bats.
I'd suggest parents boycott leagues that encourage or even permit private bat purchases.
10
Baseball and softball are both quite expensive, but so are music lessons, gymnastics, and dance. Most thing are expensive. It is too bad that great activities are only in the range of the well-off.
5
Let your kid use a wood bat, he will be a hero! Every other player in the league, every parent and sibling in the stands, will be jealous.
I speak from experience.
2
i did some photography work in the DR a few years ago. The kids there swing broom sticks and hit the caps off of water cooler jugs which they toss like a tiny Frisbee - and you should see what these kids can make their pitches do. The amazing thing was to see those kids hit the cap back the same way it came in.
6
Great, they will at a sport that involves hitting water jug caps with broom sticks. Not sure where that sport is played but it's not here.
Yeah, because it’s not like the Dominican Republic produces MLB players at a staggering rate or anything...
9
This article needs to make clear the relationship between USA Baseball and youth baseball leagues, especially Little League. Is USA Baseball calling the shots, or are they just following the directives from Little League?
That said, there's no doubt that the bats need to be made safer. Just ask Clay Mathews.
2
He was playing in a charity slow pitch softball game, thinking that there's no danger this is all in fun! Plus, he's a football player.
I bought my son a really nice bat last season that was a little big for him and also a little more than I'd planned to spend, on the thought that he would grow into the bat this season. Well, he did indeed grow into it but it became suddenly obsolete due to these ridiculous regulations. We shelled out $100 for the only regulation bat we could find. It's indistinguishable from the bat that was suddenly contraband. and we were lucky because all the other available bats were well over $200. I smell a rat.
9
They should standardize on sawed-off broom handles. Cheap. Puts the emphasis on skill instead of the bat.
4
This story is ridiculously bogus. The only issue is safety. These bats are maiming and in some cases killing pitchers because of the boomerang effect created by the titanium spring effect. That's why you will never see a metal bat in MLB games.
3
Would you please cite your source for the epidemic of pitchers getting killed in Little League games? It's not happening. DOES it happen? Probably, but rarely. Most kid sports related deaths are due to sudden cardiac arrest.
So now its only the one pecenter kids that get to fully compete and have advamtage at the pee wee league level. I dont think any player should be allowed to use anything but wood until at least college if not semi pro ball. Let everyone compete with the same instrument. If you're going to put regs and money in place make it about safety helmets and face protectors.
6
Go back to wooden bats!
Feel better on your hands when you're batting, sound better when you get a hit, part of real baseball from the time it started, and SAFER too!
Metal bats and this cash-sucking edict typify most of what's wrong with sports today! Over-managed by kill-joy business types and non-sports "experts", all about products and money, and way way from the simple joy of playing a game that's fun -- or SHOULD BE fun!
And the statement below sums up more that's wrong woith sports. We all; grew up hitting with wooden bats, and somehow (miracle of miracles!) we hot the ball, at least often enough to have fun! "Contact area" -- what jargonese. Just try and get "some wood on the ball'! THAT'S what baseball is all about!
"For a wood bat to be lighter, it must be thinner, but that creates a smaller contact area at an age when young batters need as much of that area as they can get."
5
Feels better on your hands? You've got to be kidding! Spoken like someone who hasn't played much. Wood bats give you what we called bumble bees in your hands when you miss the sweet spot, waaaaay more often than metal bats. Yes, it sounds better. Part of football in the beginning was no helmets, should we go back to that, too? And this is an attempt to make the bats react more like wood bats. Did you read the article? Doesn't sound as if you did. You also grew up with three tv channels that broadcast in B&W, telephones attached to the wall you had to literally had to dial and way less available information. I started play ball in 1967 and have played baseball and/or softball every summer since. My last year on the baseball diamond was 2011 in a wood bat 35+ league (I have never used a metal bat in baseball, except for a couple of times in the cage). Part of the problem with baseball is that it's hard (if it was easy, anyone could do it) and at this age, you want the kids to have fun learning the game, and part of the fun is hitting the ball. You still have to square it up for a good hit.
2
I taught middle school for 12 years. The bags, bats, balls, gloves, etc that these poor children have been convinced to buy (and then lug around) is beyond outrageous. Many of these kids (talking 8th graders) had well over $1,000 worth of bats in their game bags or whatever they call them now. Disgusting! And why does each kid need a bat? People have gone crazy!
10
Metal bats only have so many hits in them, so the more kids using one bat, the quicker it loses its pop. And they're called bat bags. Leave the sports to the athletes.
Cry me a river. Baseball gear is cheap. My son was a bicycle racer and over 2-3 years I probably spent around $10,000 on bikes, wheels, kit, coaching, training platforms, etc.
2
I'm going to date myself, but in my Little League days in the late 1960s and early 1970s, bats were supplied by the team. Just as most youth soccer teams have 6-12 balls as standard equipment, every team had a bag of bats -- maybe 5-6 different lengths and weights. Even though families differed in income and some parents could have easily afforded the best bats on the market, everyone made due with the team bats until about age 13-14. Were they heavier than optimal in order to avoid frequent breakage? Yes. But the playing field was level (literally and figuratively), talented players still developed and were positioned to move to higher levels, and all you needed was a glove and cleats. Not even a glove, really, as someone on the other team would always share between innings if you forgot yours. I'm sure most kids wouldn't mind going back to that system at all. Parents, though? That's another story!
7
When all the girls (girls!) played in the 1950s, we all could handle a wooden bat, certainly the guys can too. High tech bats? Too precious.
4
Yet you still threw like girls. Man, things changed quickly, because there weren't any girls playing when my older brother started playing in the early 60s and I started in the late 60s. What happened?
Have any of these people ever heard of sharing? Everyone chips in $110 to buy three bats, a light one, a medium one and a heavy one. Get a cheap one for practice if your kid insists on it, but make him cut the lawn all summer so he knows the value of things.
3
Metal bats have aliited number of hits in them, they lose their pop after a while. Three bats, especially the popular one, aren't going to last long with batting practice and game usage. And there's more to bat choice than light, medium and heavy.
Why doesn't MLB players and their billionaire owners pay for this..???
4
And business should pay for school supplies and musicians should pay for band instruments, right?
3
Stick ball was just as much fun, if not more.
5
And execs wonder why so few inner city, largely black, Americans play organized baseball. They can't afford to! Plus the lower availability of baseball diamonds - compared to basketball courts.
1
Sounds like good 'ol American capitalism at work.
2
I miss shopping for really expensive baseball gear with my sons! Seriously, going to Dick's, searching thru all the aluminum bats and mitts is one of my fondest memories. I know how annoying all the rules are and how pricey it is, but trust me, savor these moment's as they're gone in a flash. All the gear is REALLY IMPORTANT to those little cuties! lol. Enjoy it folks!
2
Just be glad your children aren't ice hockey goalies.
6
Wooden bats cost $30. Search online. Problem solved.
2
Parents should join together and revolt. This is ridiculous. These kids aren't Derek Jeter and they know that. And they could likely do without the pressure. I played softball for years as a kid with a team T-shirt -- so we would know which team kids were on by the colour. A big duffle bag of equipment (i.e., wood bats) brought by the long time volunteer coach lasted for years and years. Oh yeah, and I used my brother's glove.
I enjoyed it, learned a lot about myself and team work. Why does everything these days have to be so complicated? There are serious things in life, and 99.99% of the time, kids sports aren't one of them.
5
Wood bats lasted years and years? Maybe in softball, but that doesn't happen in baseball.
"Why not return to wood bats?" the article asks...because the aluminum bat companies need to sell aluminum bats. USA baseball made millions for aluminum bat companies by mandating that parents to buy new bats with less 'pop' for more money. Save your parents money and become a better hitter by swinging a wood bat.
4
As most kids aren't going to make it to professional ball, how is playing at a disadvantage going to help the young player. Another concern is that wood bats don't grow on trees....oh, wait, yes they do! So you're all for chopping down hundreds of thousands of trees each year to make bats for the 6 million kids playing baseball?
When I was a preteen "yoot", I played hundreds of 9 inning baseball games with my friends in our backyard. Imagine, kids playing on their own, outdoors, without being managed by an adult.
We used a softball and wood, Louisville slugger bats. Not once did any of us have difficulty swinging or controlling the bats and not once did a bat break. The hype against wood bats is not founded on facts.
11
My 14-year-old just got his first bat this year. He's been playing since he was 5, but we could never afford the full gear set-up in one go: pants, glove, helmet, bat - so he used the team's equipment. It's amazing how much money parents in our community spend on sports. It's a heckuva way to spend your money.
1
The bats kids are using today are crazy. This has been an ongoing issue since my kids starting playing 12 years ago. Associations will conduct tests and ban certain bats after most parents have made their purchases (due to the timing of the bat release and the season).
Metal bats today are not what they use to be plus it is simple for over-the-top parents to have them altered. If you think there are not altered bats in your league.... you are probably naive. It is dangerous for some of these kids to swing these bats in younger age groups but there is too much money in play with the bat companies. Once the kids reach about 16 they will start playing more wood bat tournaments.
The speed that the ball comes off of these metal and composite bats is scary. I have seen parents not able to react to the speeds. Kids get hurt every year and I always wonder if the bats are altered or not. I think 2009 statistics say 3-4 kids die each year playing baseball but we never hear about that and there does not seem to be updated reports for more recent years (since the bats have gotten hotter). I have never seen a major story devoted to that.
I wish everyone would switch to Wood Bat Leagues!! It takes a better hitter to hit with wood and it is safer IMHO; however, there are too many over zealous parents that think they have the next Mike Trout in their house.
3
Talk about First World problems. Yikes!
8
Yep, we in the US are able to afford sports equipment for our kids that equal yearly wages in many, many parts of the world. Deal with it.
In 1952 I bought a fielder's glove from a retired major league all star in his store. I didn't know he'd played for the Yankees or batted .300 one year, and he didn't tell me. He sold me the glove and told me how to break it in and care for it. I paid him his twelve dollars and used the glove for something over thirty years , when, still in good shape, it disappeared during a move. Everybody's bat was wood back then and not a one cost $400. I know all about inflation, but a four hundred dollar bat is piracy -- and a stupid metal bat to boot.
1
You do know a wood bat can last as long as one swing, right? And back then your house didn't have air conditioning, your car lasted 50,000 miles, you used an encyclopedia to look up information (i still have my 1961 World Books, which says there is vegetation on Mars.), your phone was attached to the wall, your TV had three channels and was in B&W on a 12" screen, so what's your point? Oh, and you didn't have the thing that you're using right now.
Not to mention that the new bats (as well as some of the older ones don't stand up). The alloy and aluminum bats do not do well in cold weather. Rawlings states on their website that these bats should not be used in temperatures under the mid 50's. When you live in Maine or pretty much any where in the northeast those are your playing conditions. If they are used you will likely end up with a bent bat. Seems that they don't like denser balls that the cold and rainy weather produces. I have returned 2 bent ones and have seen all the bats on the team I coach bent as well. My son uses wood now and actually loves it. I
The only things kids need to have fun playing baseball is a stick, a ball and a field around which there are no parents. Kids do not need equipment to imitate professional ball players. 99% of them will never even approach the skill, size, strength and 24/7 dedication to become one. They can have lots of fun choosing up sides on a real sandlot and play. Yes play. That's what kids do if left alone. They don't need a coach, they don't need umpires, they will figure out balls and strikes on their own. Watching a little league game with parents and grand parents sitting in a make believe stadium staring at their children who want to play but find very soon that pleasing their parents is what it is all about. All they can do to get back at the adults is to send them a bill for baseball shoes, uniforms, expensive gloves, balls, bats, helmets and gloves and the psychologist they need to help them through the ups and downs of winning and losing at a game. It is a game for kids isn't it. Let them play and keep the parents away. Save the money for their education.
5
Suckers tax .015% of a High School Baseball player making the Big Leagues. Waste of money. If your kid is that good no piece of equipment will hold them back.
2
My sons played LL for many years. In the years they played, two little boys were killed, both from balls that went too fast because the LL bats had too much of a 'trampoline' effect. The authors seem unaware that this ruling is in an effort to protect the lives & safety of the players.
Furthermore, bats typically do cost this amount. Usually you pay $45 when you're just starting out, but if you get serious, you pay the $200 for the higher quality bat. However, if money is an issue you can buy used--there are many many people advertising online and in neighborhoods. OR you can speak to the coach. One year we had a recent immigrant who couldn't afford any bat. Our coach gave him one of his.
Wood sounds nice but is terrible for youngsters. It's far too heavy and prone to causing many injuries from splintering. It's just a bad idea.
I feel like this article misrepresents the entire situation.
5
Thanks for providing the facts
.
I get the need for a new bat standard for safety, and I get Little League told people this was happening a few years ago. However, the new bats weren't available until just a few months ago. They absolutely should have delayed the implementation by a year. I bought one last spring, and then another one this spring. Our league doesn't have bats once the kids get older, so we need to buy (or borrow from another kid).
It's been awhile, but throughout my many years of playing ball (from elementary school through college and then into a variety of adult leagues), I never owned my own bat. The teams had several bats that everyone shared. I cannot imagine being 10 years old and needing (or even wanting) my pro-style gig bag filled with all of my very own stuff.
3
There's used bats and gloves online - quality stuff - at affordable prices. Add in equipment drives, private sponsor, etc - baseball isn't all that expensive compared to other sports.
I played competitive hockey growing up. Until I left America for junior hockey in Canada, my parents were on the hook for equipment. Some of the rich parents bought their son top of the line, $350 sticks and $1200 skates every year; some of the mothers were fanatical about it - they though their little boy would be the next Patrick Kane.
The coach even said to parents, "stop spending so much money on equipment, nobody on this team is good enough to play in the NHL." We were twelve at the time. He was wrong - one player was. Ironically, he was on team scholarship. Courtesy of the rich parents.
1
Youth baseball ain't the cheap babysitting it used to be.
The writers neglected to mention in this article the resale value of used bats. I always got 50% of the original sale price within 2 years of purchase. So it's essentially $75/year for a decent bat.
Wooden bats are not used .."Because they tend to break, require frequent replacement and are heavier to swing." 1) Sorry, what do you think kids played with for decades? The idea that wood is too heavy is ridiculous - I guarantee the kids would get used to it. 2) Wooden bats for kids are less than $20.
https://www.slugger.com/en-us/baseball/wood/youth/youth-genuine-125-mapl...
I would bet that a child who goes through 4 bats in a season would be at least a 2 standard deviation outlier. That is $80 bucks. There is absolutely no reason to burden families with the expense of these costly bats. The bat doesn't make the player, practice makes the player.
6
This is not new. Ten years ago I had a parent tell me he had bought his oldest son (age 12) a new bat and everyone on the team wanted to use it. The bat cost over $350 and he had instructed his son that no one else could us use his bat. The parent looked at me and sad "am I wrong?" I was stunned. I told him to expect every player on the team to want to use the bat was only natural, and that his son should work on his swing -- it would bring more productivity than the bat. To this day I'm still surprised by the conversation.
2
I ran into this out of the blue after buying new bats for my kids last year. Seems they could have at least warned us of this or phased it in so as kids grew and needed new bats they could make the change. I bet if someone dug deep they would find that the bat companies made a significant "contribution" to little league for "research" which led to this decision enabling the bat companies to make millions. Probably the bat market was too saturated with kids even being able to pass their bats on to their younger siblings (as I intended to do with the bats I bought last year). Despite their denials I wouldn't be surprised to see another mandate come down requiring another new type of bat, probably not for several more years now after parents caught in this scam no longer have kids in little league.
4
I played Little League in the 1960s, and I missed the conversion to Aluminum bats. My kids used them but when and why did they convert?
Wood bats required work i guess
Lobbying against wood? They play with wood at the major league level...
2
the piece says it's because the wood bats break.
Maybe my son's league is an anomaly, but the only things we need to provide for him is a glove and shoes. All the teams have their own bats, helmets, etc. Yes, some children bring their own bats but it is by no means a requirement.
9
Not sure if my thinking is old fashioned or if I'm simply just old, but I recall when Little League baseball was financially supported by various sponsors who paid for the little one's uniforms and equipment so kids could have fun, learn the sport, apply their learned the techniques and parents didn't have to go broke in the process while attending and cheering their kids on at each game.
Why has another "American past time" gone by the wayside where only the rich and financially well-off households are able to afford such a luxury and middle to low-income families either struggle financially or simply cannot afford to enroll their kids in this summer sport.
33
Your thinking isn't old-fashioned. You describe my Little League experience to a T. It was fun and all it demanded of my parents was their time.
3
In the long run, this is a good idea. You have only to look at golf where they failed to see the changes in technology. These folks were smart not to engage the bat producers; they (the manufacturers) have only one goal to sell more bats. How do you do that; innovate for more hits and longer hits. Unfettered the bar producers will destroy the game.
1
Follow the money. I am very skeptical about the integrity of the game as per the "administers". Baseball needs wooden bats, period.
10
This is why football/soccer is the most popular sport on earth. You need virtually nothing other than a field and ball which in many poor areas isn't even a ball. It's often made of wound-up tape or rope. But American sports channels buried soccer as long as they could because in a soccer game there's no stopping for ads for 45 minutes. God forbid! But it's making its way into our culture - and into our economy - because the viewers are demanding it and it's a wonderful and simple game.
17
Soccer is winning because it's easy. At least, it's easy when you're six. You can run around the field and have a great time. By contrast, it's a lot harder to be even a competent beginner at baseball. And until you're competent, it's not much fun. As we get our kids involved in organized sports at earlier ages, it's just easier for them to succeed at soccer than at hockey, baseball, football, which take real effort and coaching, and for which lots of young kids lack the coordination and discipline. Not the whole story, of course, but part of it.
6
As someone writing from England, I find more than a bit bemusing that you seem to think that one of the pluses of football is a relative lack of advertising. A few minutes on this side of the pond should disabuse you of that quaint notion forever. Oh, and your notion of a wound up bit of tape acting as a ball belongs in a culturally infantilizing 1980s coke commercial somewhere.
Soccer is an ok sport to play (I played it for 10 years at something like the county level) but a terrible spectator experience. In most countries, it is dominated by aggressive male fans ("90 minute bigots") and organized crime gambling interests. In the few countries that have a minimum of actual competition (Spain, Germany, Italy), the trophy is usually passed between the same 2 or 3 teams with England's slightly more being the sole exception.
Soccer in the USA? The MLS on-pitch product continues to be terrible and, despite significant efforts, remains not much more than a place for that last big paycheck for fading and disinterested world stars to seem important to "fans" who largely think they are making some statement by watching soccer. Meanwhile, tactical, intelligent, highly competitive american football, for all its faults, is an infinitely better spectator sport for those who can understand it.
3
This is what Craigslist is for. Buy one bat and keep trading up to larger sizes. $250 spread over 8 years is not bad.
3
Now THAT is an excellent idea! Double thumbs up.
Any parent who allows their children to participate in organized sports should be prepared to pay for equipment. My daughter is an equestrian & we, in no way, are in the Bloomberg/Springsteen/Olsen twins tax bracket. Had I known what horseback riding entailed, prior to giving my daughter lessons, I might have thought twice... heck, three or four times!! A used English saddle: $750.00, riding helmet $250.00, breeches, show jacket, show shirt, gloves, PIN, BOOTS (both high & low), indeed, a small fortune. And, she started riding at 13, going through several size changes, as she grew. And the horse... don't ask. But, the horse, the barn & the friends she made became her life. They all provided an outlet for her & kept her "grounded" during her adolescence. Her room was a mess, but, she mucked a stall with the best of them. Never would I assume that anyone would foot the bill, other than me. But, it saved her life. Priceless.
10
OMG! Same story here. My daughter rides Western and I can't say it's any less expensive. Western saddle, $850.00, horse-shoeing, vet clinics twice a year, dietary supplements for the horse... The term around these parts is we are "horse poor." But would still scrimp and save to make it happen. Cheaper than the prospect of rehab if she were to have continued to gravitate towards the 'troubled' elements. And, gave her her reason to live for the rest of her life.
1
Oh, honey, I know. When my daughter said she wanted to sail, and my son said he wanted to drag race, I said okay to each. Who knew it would cost so much money money!? 10 years later and here I am buying Bridgett a new boat ($17,000 - used!) and buying Bentley a new transmission ($6,200). Cars require endless fuel. But what can I say, the other sailors and drivers have become her friends and they've learned so much. I didn't assume that anybody would pay except for me. Parents must be prepared.
3
Who in their right mind thinks horseback riding is going to be a cheap proposition?
1
I've got some wonderful old bats in the garage that still do the job after decades of use, then storage, if anyone wants them.
8
Traditional bats made from the ash tree are just fine, but they will not make oodles of cash for the sporting goods folks. Oh well, that’s how it goes in baseball as all else - profit rules all.
16
You said it! When I was growing up. eons ago. we played baseball in the street, no teams, no uniforms, etc. And the neighbors never complained, we just had to be on the lookout for upcoming cars, but, the drivers never got angry or complained, they knew we had nowhere else to play.
We played with good old fashioned wooden bats. In addition, my father always kept a Louisville Slugger next to his bed at night, for "home protection". Boy, do I feel old.
9
Me too.
Wood bats are not a good solution. They are a lot heavier and smaller kids struggle to swing them.
1
It's unbelievable, in this day and age, parents would sign their kids up to a sports team. What will they learn there? It is okay for the coach to be verbally abusive, cheat but don't get caught, bully those who don't play as well and possibly be sexually assaulted by the older teammates or the coach. Little league has had its fair share of scandals. Parents still have these delusions that their kids will make big money. The odds are against that.
5
Good heavens... There's so much wrong in this story I don't even know where to begin. I had these two main thoughts at the same time though:
If a sport is going to cost me hundreds or thousands of dollars for my kid to play, they're going to play another sport. I'll have the kid join a recreational kick ball league or something. Bats shouldn't cost $450. Period.
If you are one of those parents that is buying their kid all of the most expensive gear because you need/want them to win, you are doing parenting wrong, and you're instilling your child with a corruption in their soul that will last with them through their entire lives. You are teaching them that; in order to win, throw money at it. And "winning isn't just everything, its the only thing". Those are both extremely dangerous ideals to engage in. That mentality is how you wind up with people like Bernie Madoff.
43
And yet this kind of parenting is rampant. Then I see the parents who claim they disagree with it but the same stuff and audition for the same super expensive travel leagues (rather than town leagues) to “keep up with the Jones’s”.
There’s still some of us who just want our kids to get exercise, have fun, play a game, make friends, learn what is it to be coached and be part of a team.... but it’s getting lonely.
3
And what's even worse...when all the kids on the team want to play with your kid's bat because it's "hot".
And what just compounds the agony...when a kid gets frustrated that he didn't hit with the hot bat and he slams at home plate in frustration.
And don't even get me started on the coaches who change the uniform shirt even year. Tiny change on the sleeve or trim $70.
8
Good grief, you can get a brand new game-ready 'blem' bat for about 20 bucks. Only new rule should be kids must creatively personalize them somehow. It's a game people!
4
The solution is in the comments, quite a number of times: Our 14-and-under league in the suburbs of Philly plays with wood bats. The rich kids, and the poor kids. Nobody's "disenfranchised" and everyone's happy, except the kids who complain about the weight. I tell them to do more pushups.
35
Another question: Where do all the old metal, composite, etc. bats go? Are they being recycled? (Can they even be recycled?) Or all they all going into a landfill? Since they mandated this change, should not USA Baseball be leading the charge in recycling these old bats?
10
We prohibited paid organized sports and it is great. Our children (11, 11, 9) have self organized with other kids on the street kickball, knockout (a basketball game), basketball, dodgeball, American Ninja Warrior courses, kick the can, hide and seek, dance performances, and punk rock band play-alongs. They need to figure out the rules, how to make the teams fair, adjudicate disputes, and bring new players into the games when they show up. It's free, it's convenient, and despite the vociferous arguing at times, its probably better than having adults tell them what to do. It does help that I'm a skilled athlete so am able to show them tricks and skills and practice with them; our nine year old daughter went from not being able to catch a big rubber kickball to one week later catching 80% of fly balls coming her way. We go mountain biking on the weekend, and tackled an adult level trail with some very tough climbs and tricky hairpin turns on the descent a week ago. There are better things to do than organized youth sports, particularly at a young age.
But, where will they learn teamwork? I know plenty of adults that never played youth sports that are great professional team members. So, obviously, somewhere else.
18
Easy problem to solve. One wooden bat or one aluminum bat for the team and they all share.
This crying about the "costs" is a contrived complaint. This is not a requirement for childhood.
10
Body mass on a little league team can vary by a factor of 2. Unfortunately, a single bat won't cut it for small 9 year olds and big 10 year olds to share.
Wooden bats came in different sizes and wieight for different size kids.
1
Wooden bats are fine, we used them for years. How many bats do you think a 12 year old is going to break? They allowed metal bats for the same reason major league over looked drug usage, they want more home runs.
10
I am truly sorry and sympathetic about the cost of bats, but, for perspective, I had two kids in hockey, the one that was the goalie, cost $3500 to dress, plus each team cost $1500 for ice-time. I know that's crazy. You can't share a goalie cup but can't you buy a couple of bats for the team?
2
What rule says each kid needs to own his/her own bat? Get real folks, this isn't pro ball.
14
What a shame parents waste time and money on such a selfish and useless pursuit as sports. For a better lesson for your kids, join or form a service club. Do something for society. Cub Scouts collect food. (And, NYT, there are organizations where you could get a photo of a girl or a minority child having fun and participating right along with the boys.)
3
This bat craze is just one more, of millions, of examples of how we're getting high-teched and hyper-competed out of our humanity. O, for the Good Ol' Days....
5
Someone is getting rich here, and it's not the families who have to fork over the money for these bats.
4
I was shocked when I had to buy my son these expensive bats. Growing up in Brooklyn, we needed 18 players, one ball and one bat. Not to mention all the other awesome street games we played with minimal equipment. The best being the laundry detergent caps for skelly. Ringalevio anyone?
8
It's true - teams can have a few bats that the kids share. That's what we do. But surely the bigger questions are:
- why the heck do bats cost $100+ ?
- why do new standards necessitate *increased* bat prices?
Manufacturers and the leagues in cahoots? Probably.
If you are kid that want's to play, or a parent of a kid, please come play. You can borrow a bat - it's totally normal. You can get cleats from used gear stores - kids grow out of them fast anyway. Just come play. Hustle is all you need to join in.
8
What comes to my mind is...."Suckers!"
Organized sports is more for the adults than the kids anyway.
7
How much money do the kids in the Dominican republic spend on bats, uniforms, etc...? They seem to be doing OK. Here its always all about emptying your pockets to buy/pay for stuff.
5
The 'ping' off of a metal bat pales in comparison to the satisfaction of the crack of a wooden bat.
13
I grew up in Ft. Wayne, Indiana which had this amazing summer tradition called "Wildcat Baseball".
It was funded by a rich old man named Mr. Dale McMillen Sr. who didn't like the fact that you had to try out for a Little League team and if one wasn't "good" enough, you didn't get to play. And if you could not afford uniforms, etc., you could not play.
So, he came up with "Wildcat Baseball" where every kid got to play and if you could not afford the cap and t-shirt that was the "uniform", it was paid for. And at the end of the summer, there was a huge jamboree at the park named after his family where we bar-b-cued, competed, and basically told the Little League to go to hell for being such snobs.
I wish every kid in America could join a Wildcat team. And thank you Mr. McMillen for some great childhood memories. There were not very many.
45
Every community needs a Dale McMillen or 6.
Too bad most of those who get filthy rich tend not to be that type of person.
There are town leagues where no tryouts are required. Consider donating or volunteering yourself to one of those “all welcome to play” town leagues. My 2nd grader is in one now. They could barely afford 2 bats for the team to share. Some kids bring their own bats but I really think the team should provide as much shared equipment as possible.
1
Safety reasons? Yeah right. It's plain and simple, $200-$400 bats made exclusively for Little League is nothing but big business.
Many years ago, on the back page of Time Magazine, was a guest editorial written by Robin Roberts, a one time ace for the Phillies. He said that Little League was the worst thing that could happen to kids playing baseball. What with all their uniform rules, game rules and how it takes away the joy of kids just playing ball.
Now kids have to look like a professional ball player.
Little League, go away! Unfortunately that will never happen. It's big business and the hell with what the kids think or want.
14
I was a Little League umpire for 8 years while my kids were going through the program. I've inspected a lot of bats from a lot of teams. Never a wooden bat, though. A metal bat lasts a long time but they were significant differences in bat performance and price. It was time for the league to set a new standard.
Little League is a great organization that puts a huge emphasis on safety and sportsmanship. I trust that the league is making changes for the betterment of the game and experience for the kids. It's all about kids learning to enjoy a game and how to play on a team.
3
Is it me or does it seem that parents & leagues are putting too much emphasis on sports these days? I can't believe some of the schedules these kids have, and with parents in tow or taking them to far aflung places to play.
7
There are definitely less homeruns this year. People complaining that bats are too expensive need to ask themselves why their kid needs a $300 bat. For the last two years my kid's whole team used his $50 bat even thought the other kids had more expensive models.
We didn't have a problem finding a new bat, however the selection in the under $200 category was limited. I told my kid I would give hime $100 for a bat and he could use some of his own money if he wanted a more expensive one.
3
We put too much emphasis on organized sports for kids. The cost of equipment are only one aspect of a culture where winning becomes everything and parents push their kids to irrational extremes and behave very badly themselves. My son was a very talented athlete but he had a number of bad experiences starting while he was still in grade school. There were two coaches who got into a physical fight after a game. A coach who screamed the kids so often my son quit the team in disgust. A basketball coach from an opposing team who wanted to win every game so badly he broke the rule that required that all team members get equal playing time by keeping his best players on the court and benching his weaker players. I had to try to explain to my son that his coach did the right thing by limiting his playing time even though it caused his team to lose. Then in ninth grade he quit the football team because older kids were brutalizing his friends in practice while the coach watched and did nothing. The cowards did not harass him because he was bigger and stronger than they were. The most extreme example was when one hockey dad in my town beat another father to death in front of his kids. I was quite happy when my son, despite his athletic ability, chose to join the drama club rather than continue to play sports.
11
In Response to JS:
Can't help but wonder who the real kids are? Certainly sounds like they (coaches) are great role models for young people! I'd pull my kid out of that situation in a flash. Hope your son can still play some baseball if he wants too, just for the fun of it.
My son swam for 12 years and the costs were low. A Speedo banana hammock, goggles, flip flops, sun block and a towel.
6
If you swim all year, you need a full length lined parka for the winter. If you're competitive you need to belong to a swim club. You need several bathing suits at a time and several towels. Because club membership isn't cheap -- they supply the heated pool, the locker room and the coaches -- club swimming is beyond the means of the poor.
3
How long ago? Only summer park district?
The serious swimmers spend a whole lot more.
1
Amen Michas: Our family gave up every vacation and all weekends for swimming for ONE kid for 10 years. Dragged the other 2 around. Horrible waste of family resources. I would never do it again.
Had there been any real-world thinkers involved in this autocratic decision, there would have been a much longer period called for regarding the replacement of bats. To simply say all the old bats are no good and can't even be used for two or three years smacks of kingdoms and tyrants.
3
This is another illustration of how we in the United States lose all sense of all proportion over activities that are just supposed to be fun. Professional equipment and tactics for 10-year-olds suggest that this has moved beyond a game. Are these kids just proxies for their parents' aspirations?
The expressions of ferocious competitiveness on the faces of some of these kids are also scary. When do they get to be just kids? And what are they going to be doing to each other once they get big and strong enough?
13
Piano lessons are about $1500/year plus the price of a piano, top tier ballet schools charge about $5,000 per year, and acting classes are about $500/session. Kids in the arts have no more time to be kids than kids in sports. But somehow sports always finds the naysayers who apply a double standard when it comes to the arts.
3
Even when I played youth baseball, almost 60 years ago, Little League took the fun out of the game. While Rec League baseball allowed everyone to play, provided helmets and catcher padding, and free (high-schooler) umpires, Little League was selective and expensive. Parents today who support the various private traveling-team sports (baseball, hockey, and otherwise) are not only spending a lot of money but doing their pre-high-school children a disservice. Children's sports should first and foremost be fun, not hyper-competitve and pricey previews of an adult dog-eat-dog world.
50
I never understood the traveling-all-star racket. Those kids and their parents invest a LOT of time in that enterprise.
9
I agree. I'm utterly mystified by families that can spend a fortune -- and massive amounts of time traveling every weekend for games -- for these youth league sports.
1
Just do away with ALL metal bats at ALL levels of competition. If you want to play in the majors use a wooden bat, just like they do in the majors
9
U.S.A. Baseball is trying to do the right thing here and should be applauded for at least trying to make the game more fair. The recent ban on expensive high tech swim suits for youngsters also comes to mind. Increasingly, it seems that raising kids is devolving into a zero-sum game which these examples highlight.
Parents should wise up to the extent that their fears are being preyed upon under the false pretense of ensuring that their children get a leg up in life. Parents are spending literally thousands of dollars a year on equipment, private sports clubs, and travel in an attempt to gain a sports scholarship when in reality most would be better off saving for college upon birth and focusing their kids on academics instead.
Without similar attempts like the one by U.S.A. Baseball, sports at all levels will continue its downward spiral to where the human factor is all but negated in favor of technology. In the end, we might as well watch robots compete if not for some standards.
2
I rode horses which was the posterchild of pay to win kids sport. Spend enough money and you can buy a robotic horse that ignores the rider and does it's job. But the funny thing is that you still get to a point where talent becomes the factor and the advantages mean nothing. College equestrian is a draw system where you pick a random horse and favors the kids who rode horses of varying degrees of challenge. Professional riders HAVE to be able to handle problems. So the $250,000 horse ends up being a crutch for its rider. That desire to win as a kid leaves the rider unable to go pro or ride for a scholarship. Anyhow, parents are nuts with the spending these days on sports.
My father ran a Little League for 27 years and would have been INCENSED by this decision. He was opposed to the use of metal bats by kids for the same reasons as USAB, plus the danger to the pitcher from the speed of the ball off the bat, not mentioned here. The idea that wood bats "tend to break" is ridiculous: They rarely break in the major leagues and when they do, the result is usually a bloop single.
All USAB has done here is create another barrier to participation, a wall of dollar signs. We'll never see another Willie Mays.
53
$250 for a sleek DeMarini Voodoo bat...
[ This is nutty. I played softball not too long ago on the school team and we had all the equipment we needed which was as it should be. ]
16
It's hard to imagine that the league's seal of approval on a bat doesn't earn the league a bit of income. Isn't that cozy deal a big part of the reason that only "approved" bats may be used? How much money are we talking about? I didn't see anything in the story about how much it was worth to the league.
10
Don't blame the kids, many times it's the parent who thinks their child needs the $400 bat to fit in on the team. They are reliving their own youth through their kids. The price parents are paying fr their kids to play on travel teams range up to $10,000 and many of the kids don't start or play 1-2 innings but daddy tell everyone his kids team just won a big game. Just go to a kids tournament some weekend and watch the kids coming in to play. 10 year olds wearing Under Armour backpack with 3 bats , $100.00 shoes, $100 glove plus travel fees and some of them don't even get on the field. Parents pay $60-$80 for 1/2 hour private pitching or hitting lessons. And nobody is twisting their arms.
26
One thing I am not getting here: Does every kid need to own his own bat? When I played school ball, I used the school's bats, and didn't swing a bat outside of practices and games.
66
I remember the same. Each player chose one of the team bats on the way to the on deck circle. If a player wants to use his/her own bat, fine, but there should be a set of regulation bats for use by all. Wouldn't the annual sign up fee cover the cost? This isn't hockey, where every player needs a stick for the whole game.
23
Yes, the times have changed. No one uses wooden bats anymore - but they should.
The new equipment rage is because kids were being killed by line drives off of the new-fangled aluminum, and now composite type bats. Even high school and college kids were being injured. They pack a lot more power than the wood bats of yore.
So now they are supposedly coming up with newly designed aluminum/composite bats that have less chance of driving the baseball through a kids chest - all for a very high price. It just ain't Little League anymore, which is a crying shame.
8
My son had his own bat(s) and did not lend them to other players due to risk of damage. They were $250-300 each. His wooden bat league during college summers cost us hundreds of dollars in broken wooden bats. He broke at least one a week at $50/each.
The chasm that this helps create in youth sports is significant.
Youth sports are strongly split down socio-economic lines, segregating a community in their own way, and this does nothing to help bridge the gap.
It is telling that in the area where I live we have only minor overlap between players in the youth basketball league and youth baseball league. Basketball is the sport for children who are raised by their mother and grandmother, and baseball is the sport for the children with a dad at home.
The cost to play basketball essentially amounts to the registration fee, while the cost to play baseball is ever growing (cleats, glove, bat, helmet, etc.).
Further, a child can play and practice basketball on their own, while the need for an adult to play catch with them and pitch to them is essential in baseball. And with ever increasing competitive leagues at the age of 7-8, many coaches place an emphasis on winning (mostly meaningless) ballgames as opposed to developing players, talent and programs.
Tune in to the sweet sixteen round of the NCAA Basketball Tournament and the College World Series and compare the composition of the teams.
If we truly believe in youth athletics as a teaching device, then we have come a long way but have a long way to go.
29
College baseball teams are "whiter" because Major League Baseball has a two-tiered draft structure: a high school player can declare for the draft immediately, but if he enrolls in college, he must stay for a minimum of three years. Thus college baseball is less likely to be composed of players who have family hardships and need that big contract ASAP.
3
Seriously? Single moms and grandmas raise basketball players? THIS single mom raised a professional baseball player. And I never missed a game. Ever.
6
@Charles: The two-tiered draft is no doubt a (minor) contributing factor to the difference between composition of college baseball and basketball teams, but the problem reveals itself before then. Scan the top 200 prospects (http://m.mlb.com/prospects/2018/?list=draft) at the upcoming MLB draft and just look for HS players. Or compare one of the showcase all-star baseball games (i.e. Perfect Game) and their rankings of prospects with a HS All-American basketball game and their rankings of prospects.
Anecdotally, in our (small) area we have 50 kids 8 and under who play basketball, and 75 kids 8 and under who play baseball. There are only 10 kids in the overlap.
There are lots of reasons for all of this (sport specialization, basketball courts offer an efficient use of land in urban areas, more rural areas have more land available for baseball fields and baseball complexes, the aforementioned family factors, etc.).
But if we really believe that sports can be an educational tool for the masses and are not just an avenue for future pros and college scholarships (and they aren't), then we are missing an opportunity to teach life lessons and keep kids involved.
And telling a mother who has no knowledge of baseball that the bat she just bought for her son can't be used doesn't help (even if there are bats available for her son to use).
Definitely time to bring back stick ball. The Great Depression, relatively speaking, only felt like it back then. There are a great many manners of despair.
5
This is one reason I didn't encourage my son to play this year. Little League is probably the worst managed youth sport with the interference of the national body into local decisions (such as exclusive recruiting areas) all based on the lottery-ticket chance your kid will play in the Little League World Series at age 12. This bat transition should have been extended over 3 years. The league showed no basic understanding of the mechanics and logistics of replacing every team bat and serious player bat. Good luck finding durable wooden bats suitable for players this age.
9
Every player doesn't need a compliant bat. Each team could have a bat fund and have a supply of five or six game bats for team use.
73
Would that work in terms of practice; that is, can a player effectively practice using one type of bat, but then play with another type of bat?
2
I coached little league for many years. We had three or four bats for each team and that was sufficient. Sure some kids wanted their own bats, and some parents purchased bats for the children, but the bats were similar to the team bats and in my opinion, a waste of money. These kids are learning to hit, a life time task, and as long as the bat was not to heavy to swing the make and model of the bat made very little difference to their hitting.
58
@robert H. Weber: Your last point raises an issue with the new bats that is largely ignored in the article. Many of them are too heavy for children to use to learn to swing properly with. The new manufacturing processes result in bats that are far too heavy for most all children under the age of 10, and many of the heaviest bats are the least expensive. It is now quite difficult (or very expensive) to find a proper bat for a typical 8 and under player, especially in leagues that use machine pitch.
Go back to wood. I have used a bamboo bat for softball, and is durable and light. Sure, I cannot hit it out of the park every time, but that is my fault, and the way it should be.
27
This puts poor kids out of the running, even middle class. Kids should be equally able to participate in public sports.
33
USA baseball is not a public sport or public enterprise. Kids playing in a field with their sweatshirts and jackets being used for bases is.
3
Parents having to dig deep to pay for children's events -- events that used to be free (and simply managed). So, what else is new?
24
In the 50's all we had was wooden bats for Little League. It was a good time to be a kid.
63
Right, and I don't ever recall a broken wood bat at the Little League level, probably due to the slower pitching speeds and lighter swings.
3
You know when it gets expensive? When your kid insists Joey or Jimmy is hitting well because of a new tech bat that they're using, and they need it to. Of course, it's in their head ... but that matters. Then the $200 bat you purchased for them 3 months ago effectively becomes a $450 bat because now you've shelled out $250 in a replacement bat. And, many of these bats develop flaws in their integrity after a year, sometimes less, of use.
They should all go back to wood bats.
35
Hockey sticks, hockey sticks. Suddenly it was all titanium, aluminium and other expensive (tariffs anyone) materials instead of the good old trusty Sherwood
2
My garage is full of shattered metal bats . . . at $250-300-450 each. And I detest the "ping" of the metal bats compared to the crack of wood.
2
Two words. Wood bats. And at all levels...from T-Ball forward.
53
I also think they should go back to wood bats. There's a different feel when you hit a ball with wood than with aluminum. The wood doesn't jolt your body as the aluminum does. Besides, with the new tariffs on aluminum....just sayin'......!
70
Each kid has to provide his or her own $400 bat. When did Little League baseball become a sport for the One-Percenters?
89
No, every kid doesn't need their own bat, they just often ask their parents for one, or the parents wanting to go practice hitting with their kid decides to buy one for that reason. Our league gave every team 2 new bats this year. Half of my team has their own bats, so we have plenty to go around for the kids who don't own their own bat.
I can't imagine wood bats would be a good alternative, they're heavier and there is the issue of breaking/replacing them. USA Baseball gave us 2 years notice, I told all my players parents last year to not buy a new bat until the new certified models came out. Good hitters can still hit the ball hard, but the pop is definitely down this year.
2
As with jungle gyms, teeter totters and diving boards, Little League needs to be cancelled. It's just too dangerous and too hard to make it fair.
3
To Laurence Berk:
What have you got against teeter-totters?
Sadly, Little League can be a dirty business. There's a lot more to this story.
And these high costs are killing the game.
17
So, do you pay the mortgage, invest in the college fund or buy $400 bats for 10 yo kids?? Really? Just another example of the inequities between the haves and the have-nots...
26
This was problem 20 years ago with the fancy pants bats for the haves and not so fancy school owned bats for the have nots. Sickening.
14
I have a partial solution: Go back to wood bats.
12
Talk about cornering the market: big Pharma… Now we have a big baseball bat manufactures!
6
Hockey parents all laugh when we read about other sports' "expenses."
On another note, it is super dumb that youth baseball hasn't moved to all wood bats.
40
Tennis players parents also laugh when we hear about other sports' expenses...especially when it comes to equipment and travel...no team to share cost.
5
Ugh who cares!?! Just another reason this sport should not be our nation's national pastime. zzzzz.
7
Let them go back to wood bats.
9
Just another chapter in the book of "who has enough money to raise a child in the USA".
By chance I held out buying my little-leaguer a bat until this year so Big Sporting Goods only got me once.
But they'll be back for more, I know it. Right now someone is thinking of ways to get kids to play more lacrosse...I'm certain of it.
13
In my opinion, kids should go back to wood bats. The metal bats break and crack over the course of a season, just like wooden bats. (I've even seen a metal bat break in half.) The difference is that wooden bats aren't nearly as expensive to replace. They also don't send the ball hurtling off the bat at dangerous speeds.
84
I agree with Seth and add that going wood will make the game sound like it used to. I cringe at the "ping" of aluminum bats.
43
Not to mention a wooden bat sounds like real baseball. Not that disgusting ping!
7
Ask the parent of any child participating in any organized activity, whether it be baseball, gymnastics, dance, music, or anything else:parenting isn't for the faint of heart nor the light of bank balance. We are sadly decades past the point where kids would just go out and play in the neighborhood. It is a shame that many of these activities are stratified based on wealth. Those whose kids ride horses, for example, would likely laugh (or cry) at somebody who thinks $250 for a new bat is a big deal. No value judgments intended...that's just the way it is.
42
My u10 does not own a USA bat. He will not be getting a new USA bat. Maybe somewhere down the line he will get a used USA bat from ebay but that is it.. Since the USA bats are supposed to create a wood like effect when hitting a baseball I have simply gotten him wood bats. Yes it's true wood bats break. We have gone through a few wood bats and will so in the future. His current wood bat cost less that $25 per bat with shipping on clearance at Rawlings. If Zev or pretty much any other kid has the right approach, timing and mechanics in their swing then that kid will have success swinging. Sometimes my son has that and sometimes he doesn't. But that is where the money needs to be spent - when you need help getting the technique right. The times my son has had his approach, timing and mechanics down pat then it appears to me he could swing with a twig and have success.
I could spend money on video games. But my son likes being on the team. I would rather invest in the social, educational and communal ties that baseball brings him than have my son focus on the need for the latest PS 4 game.
One question I have for USA Baseball is how can you sell us on the fact that a bat with 2' 5/8 barrel and a -10 drop be considered wood like? No real wood bat is made with those dimensions. It's just too light to be a wood bat. Why is the public allowing itself to be conned?
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I am saddened to see the decline of fun in kids sports. Little League has tremendous feelings of entitlement and is increasing it further by enforcing every player to have an outrageously expensive bat. In our area, the public fields previously shared by everyone have become the apparently private enclave for the entitled Little League (locked all winter to the public), to watch daddy coaches yell and abuse the little boys. It is time for the Little League to go down. Fortunately enrollment is plummeting. Bring fun back to childhood.
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