Wood bat leagues give scouts, players that pro feel.
By IZZY GOULD
Published July 22, 2005
[Times photo: Dan McDuffie]
Wood bats line the fence during a recent game between the Zephyrhills Snappers and Orlando Shockers at Zephyrhills High.
George Brandner of the Orlando Shockers swings in the on-deck circle. Teams in the Florida Collegiate Summer League use only wood bats during their games.
Players like George Brandner of the Orlando Shockers hope to impress pro scouts with their ability to hit with wood bats instead of aluminum.
ZEPHYRHILLS - The baseball field draws barely a glance from anyone in the air-conditioned cars zipping past Zephyrhills High. They dismiss this game as they would another passing motorist.
They shouldn't.
This high school field is filled with college players intent on impressing one man.
The hand holding the radar gun behind home plate this day belongs to a Boston Red Sox scout.
He and others stand beneath a sun hot enough to fire mercury through the tip of a thermometer.
All - scouts and players alike - are drawn to the Florida Collegiate Summer League for the same reason: This is one of nine collegiate wood bat leagues nationwide - the only one in Florida - monitored and partially funded by Major League Baseball.
The league represents a reverse trend, which began in 1985 when the Cape Cod Baseball League became the first sanctioned by the NCAA to scrap metal for wood.
The Cape league is considered the model for summer leagues, boasting more than 1,000 alumni in professional baseball. One hundred-sixty nine were drafted in 2005.
FLCS president Sara Whiting knows her nonprofit league, in its second season with just six teams and 130 players, needs time to grow. She hopes Floridians ultimately see it as a comparable option, keeping Florida baseball talent home while chasing professional careers.
"A lot of them are doing this so they can go to the next level," Whiting said. "To do that, the scouts need to see them play with a wood bat."
Supporting the trend, a Pasco County wooden bat summer league, made up mostly of high school juniors and seniors, just completed its third season.
Players know wood bats are the key to entering professional ballparks. They assume at least one scout is watching each time they hit with wood.
Many baseball minds believe metal bats inflate statistics. NCAA statistics show batting averages increased steadily from 1970 to 1974 - when aluminum bats were introduced - then leveled off in the mid 1980s. Home runs followed a similar trend.
Scouts learned to carry wood bats in their cars while traveling to different towns, only to learn the disappointing truth about the next "Ruth."
The demand for a wood stage fueled the Cape league and prompted others to change along the way. Wood bats also sparked programs such as Perfect Game USA and World Wood Bat Association, both led by president Jerry Ford, a former scout for the Minnesota Twins.
"A lot of times you can get misled a little bit with people always swinging metal bats," Ford said. "There are guys who hit with metal, but for whatever reason don't seem to be able to hit with wood."
There are an abundance of tournaments, showcase leagues and instructional schools nationwide using wood today.
Ford said he has offered his fish bowl of prospects and scouts for 13 years. His largest showcase is held annually in Jupiter, where he expects between 600 and 700 scouts.
"We started doing everything we could do - instruction, tournaments or leagues - using only wood bats," Ford said. "That's what you use in professional baseball. Next thing you know, colleges were starting to hit with wood in the fall."
Wood bats lost the popular vote in the 1970s when leagues, particularly the NCAA, adopted metal bats as standard equipment.
Replacement cost of wood bats was often cited as a major reason for the switch. Coaches could buy three or four metal bats that would last a season instead of running through dozens of wood ones.
Wood bats range in price from $20-$150, metal bats from $40-$300.
But metal bats began to lose some of their luster in the 1980s.
Safety became a concern. Metal bats have been blamed for deaths, some researchers say, because the exit speed of a ball off a metal bat is often greater than off wood. Some metal bats have an exit speed close to 100 mph.
Metal bats also have been the scapegoat for high school games that last more than three hours, and college games such as the 1998 World Series final in which Southern California defeated Arizona State 21-14.
Zephyrhills Snappers pitcher Paul Cinder, who will be a junior at St. Petersburg College, echoed those thoughts.
"I'm throwing in college against a bloomin' onion," he said. "If you misplace your ball just a little bit, an aluminum bat will knock it out of the infield. It dies right off of a wood bat. (Throwing against wood) allows me to throw at the plate. If I miss my spot it won't hurt as bad."
Beyond the thrill of entertaining major-league scouts, some Snappers believe there are benefits of playing wood-bat baseball, including a shift to a more defensive game.
Designated hitter Lee Cruz, who also plays for the University of Tampa, has seen his statistics climb with a wood bat. He was batting .444 before Wednesday's doubleheader, up from his junior season at UT when he hit .326.
"I think I hit better with a wood bat," Cruz said. "That's just how I feel. I like wood a whole lot better. It makes you work more."
But teammate Orlando Rosales, another UT teammate, hasn't enjoyed the same success. Rosales led UT with a .361 batting average but is hitting just .338 for the Snappers.
His home run production also has suffered. After hitting six home runs for UT, Rosales had just one before Wednesday's games.
"Hitting with wood is a lot harder," he said.
That's what Pasco County high school coaches were thinking when they formed a wooden bat league three years ago.
Mitchell coach Phil Bell helped create a league that essentially became an extension of the high school season. He said Pasco County athletes used to play in other summer leagues that required extensive travel.
"Parents and kids wanted more baseball," Bell said. "The first two years of the Mitchell (High's) baseball program, our kids played American Legion baseball. It was a great experience, but an awful lot of travel and a lot of rainouts. At the time, we were trying to keep raising the bar within our county."
Bell said the wood bats, which players usually provide, were added as a wrinkle and had little to do with coddling fantasies of one day playing at Tropicana Field.
"We said let's take the aluminum bat out of it and find out who can really hit," Bell said. "The coaches in this county really ran with it."
Aluminum bats have a number of advantages over wood bats. The balance point of a hollow metal bat is closer to the handle, meaning it can be swung faster, generating ball-exit speeds of nearly 100 mph. Metal bats have a "trampoline effect" when hitting a ball, and have a wider sweet spot than wood bats. But metal bats have been criticized for being dangerous, and some in baseball blame metal bats for inflated statistics. The biggest disadvantage for a potential pro prospect using an aluminum bat? Major-league baseball allows only wood.
