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New rule, new bats, questionable results

Area coaches and players haven't noticed a difference in how hard or how far the ball can be hit with new $300 "minus-3'' bats, which are supposed to be safer.

By BRANT JAMES

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 13, 2001

It's a rule many felt was unnecessary from the beginning, and now they see it as a pricey switch with benevolent intentions that hasn't paid off.

More than a month after a new rule took effect that would supposedly sap power from aluminum bats, players and coaches aren't describing a drop in offense or an increase in safety, only a $300 hit to their bank accounts for new, legal bats.

"The difference? Basically none," Hernando coach Tim Sims said. "I hate to say it, but with this rule, (the Florida High School Activities Association) is just covering their butts."

Passed in January 2000 and imposed this season, the National Federation of State High School Association's new bat rule was adopted by most state organizations, including the FHSAA. It states, "the maximum diameter of bats will be reduced from 2 3/4 inches to 2 5/8 inches, and the unit differential, namely the difference between bat length measured in inches and bat weight measured in ounces, will be reduced from five units to three units."

Simply put, barrels on the new "minus-3s" will be more narrow. As an example, a 33-inch bat cannot weigh less than 30 ounces.

Implementation of the rule, which the National Federation backed with physics and lists of players injured by batted balls, was followed a year later by a similar move by the NCAA.

The problem is, many local high school coaches and players don't think the guidelines do what they were intended to do.

"I haven't seen any change at all," Zephyrhills coach Bruce Cimorelli said. "The ball looks like it's flying like it has been."

Bat manufacturers such as Easton and Louisville Slugger are frequently perceived as the beneficiaries of the rule change that affected colleges and high schools in 48 states.

Despite the recent rush on expensive bats, the opposite has been true, said Matt Arndt, director of baseball/softball products for Easton.

"We made gains in the short term, but it equaled out," he said. "Two years before, with all the rumors going around, the bat market froze. Those were two very brutal years."

Arndt would not reveal exact sales figures, but in 2000, the year before most states went to minus-3s, he said Easton's sales of adult bats increased 80 percent from 1999, which is 30 to 40 percent higher than sales during an average year.

Easton, along with fellow bat-maker Baum, unsuccessfully sued the NCAA in 1998 in an attempt to stop the rules change. Arndt still questions the validity of studies that assert the broad-barreled minus-5s were potentially lethal.

"(The NFHS) said they were interested in the integrity of the game, from an offensive standpoint," he said. "As far as safety goes, they dabble in it.

"They backed off (safety issues) when their numbers couldn't prove anything."

The new rule does not address the complicated safety issues of maximum exit ball speed and wood-like moment-of-inertia requirements.

"I don't think baseball was unsafe in the first place," Arndt said.

Paul McLaughlin, assistant director of athletics for the FHSAA, disagreed.

"We had a safety problem," he said. "All it takes is one (injury)."

McLaughlin doesn't know if Florida still has a safety problem, and won't until after the season, he said, when he assesses injury reports and statistics and talks to coaches.

NFHS baseball rules editor Elliot Hopkins said his organization will meet in June to gather information from national associations and determine if the current guidelines are adequate.

Meanwhile, even as his company conforms to the dimension limits, Arndt admits Easton continues to push performance boundaries with new designs and alloys.

"(Bat companies) will counteract the rule because of money," Ridgewood coach Larry Beets said. "Vendors and manufacturers have so much tied up, they will come up with a space bat, probably with some kind of radar to track the ball on the way in with goggles to put on your head."

Hopkins said the National Federation would not use cost to consumers as a determing factor in changing bat rules again, but added, "we don't want them to sell a product that jeopardizes people."

But more "wood-like" bats will not solve the problems, Sims said.

"That's baseball," Sims said. "You get a Dee Brown at the plate and a guy throwing it 90 (mph) on the mound and, wood or aluminum or whatever, if he smacks it up the middle, the pitcher is in trouble."

Brown hit 15 home runs with a minus-5 last season, and said he has not noticed any difference with his minus-3.

"If you hit it, you hit it," he said. "There hasn't been one I hit thinking it would go out that didn't."

Even if the minus-3s allow pitchers more time to react, Beets theorizes they are more likely to be hit now than before.

"With the smaller (barrel) diameter, people are popping the ball up more, so they have to concentrate more on hitting down," he said. "That means more line drives and pitchers getting hit. And with a heavier bat, people are just going to pump up even more."

Some coaches, such as Gaither's Frank Permuy, a member of the FHSAA baseball advisory committee, question the motives behind the rule change.

"I think sometimes they sit in a room and say, "What rule will we change this year?"' he said.

No rule matters without enforcement. Umpires are the on-field arbiters of the switch to minus-3s, but most coaches say they have been less than diligent.

Umpires usually remind each bench of the rule before games, but do not check during play whether each bat bears the mandated "minus-3" logo.

A player is ruled out if caught using an illegal bat.

"We had a JV game where a kid used a (minus-5) and our catcher caught it," Beets said. "I think you could use it and slip it back without anyone seeing. I would imagine there's some of that going on."

Consensus among coaches is that if the National Federation wants to complete its stated goal of making bats more wood-like, it should require them to be wood.

The cost of wood bats initially led high schools to aluminum bats in the 1970s. Wood bats now cost a fraction of some new aluminum products.

"(Aluminum bats) used to be $50 to $80 and lasted 3 to 5 years," Sims said. "Wood bats are $28 now and you can get them by the dozen even cheaper.

"If you want to be wood-like, let's all use wood."

McLaughlin said anyone is free to do that now, as long as they conform to minus-3 specs. That's unlikely to happen, and Hopkins said it's even more unlikely aluminum bats will be phased out.

The reason? Commerce apparently wins out.

"Not in my lifetime," Hopkins said. "(Bat companies) have a real good product and they're making a lot of money. We don't want to restrict anybody's trade."

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