I could not be less surprised that a fan has sued the New York Mets after he was hit by a maple baseball bat that shattered during a game.
Last Friday, as I watched a Tampa Bay Rays vs. Baltimore Orioles game at Tropicana Field, I saw three wooden bats break in two innings. What’s the problem?
Players are using maple bats, and maple bats break. Maple bats became even more popular after Barry Bonds used maple bats to break the single season home-run record. They are way more brittle than hickory or ash. Major League Baseball launched a study in 2008 and found maple bats were three times more likely to break in various places than ash bats. But MLB did not disallow maple.
Now, Sports Illustrated reports, a spectator who was hit in the face by a shattered bat is suing:
“James G. Falzon’s lawsuits follow years of discussion of the safety of maple baseball bats, which have become increasingly popular but have been shown to break apart more readily than traditional ash bats.”
Yahoo Sports looked into the maple controversy and said there is some research to suggest that maple bats do not necessarily lead to more home runs.
