When walking into Jackie Robinson Stadium, or any other college
baseball stadium, there is one sound that echoes that is never
heard from professional baseball.
Ping!
That’s the sound of an aluminum bat striking the ball,
creating an unmistakable difference between the major leagues and
the collegiate level.
But it wasn’t always this way.
Aluminum bats first came on the scene in 1974 as a
“temporary” solution to budget crunches across the
country in athletic departments.
Former UCLA coach Gary Adams, whose first year leading the UCLA
program was the same year that aluminum bats came into use in
college, remembers the time well.
“When they came out with aluminum bats, it was supposed to
be a temporary thing,” he said. “College baseball and
all of college sports were in an economic crush.”
Athletic departments realized the savings that more durable
aluminum bats brought to the table.
The monetary savings from using aluminum bats is indisputable
when taking a look at how often wooden bats break. Even though
aluminum bats can cost up to five times their wooden counterparts,
a player would undoubtedly go through many more than five wood bats
in a season. As a result, the temporary solution became
permanent.
A Preference for the Old Game
Despite the cost savings, Adams and many others still prefer
wood bats.
“Wooden bats give the game more credibility,” Adams
said.
Adams noted how different the college game has become due to the
introduction of aluminum.
Hitters have a distinct advantage with the use of aluminum bats
because when hitters are jammed on the inside, a larger sweet spot
allows more hits to fall in front of the outfielders. Another
difference is that a ball hit at the same area on a bat will travel
farther with aluminum.
“In the big leagues, if you make a good pitch inside,
you’re rewarded,” Adams said.
This forces pitchers to constantly pitch outside in college. But
as Adams notes, the hitters will just crowd the plate and the good
ones will simply hit that outside pitch the other way, instead of
pulling it like the pitcher wants.
UCLA first baseman Brett McMillan has seen first-hand the
differences in power between aluminum and wood bats from his time
playing in wood-bat leagues, such as the Cape Cod League, during
the summer.
“With wood, sometimes you really think you get a ball good
and it’s caught at the warning track,” McMillan said.
“With metal bats, sometimes you think, “˜Oh I missed
that one, it’s going to be caught,’ and it goes over
the fence.”
Professional teams, however, are not fans of aluminum due to
these effects. It becomes harder for scouts to gauge a pitcher
since throwing inside is not as commonplace in the college game.
Scouts are also forced to adjust how they see a college power
hitter because some of that power might be due to the bat and not
the player swinging it.
“I would think the pro people would definitely want wood
due to a lot less mistakes in evaluation,” current UCLA coach
John Savage said. “It would be really clear who could hit and
who could not.”
Savage noted that a college game with wood would be radically
different than the high-octane games seen today, the most famous
example being the 1998 championship game between Arizona State and
USC, in which the Trojans prevailed by an astounding 21-14.
“The college game would be much more based off pitching,
off defense and speed,” Savage said.
The Difficulty in Switching
With all of this anecdotal evidence against aluminum bats, it
might seem that a push for the reinstatement of wood bats would be
imminent, or would have already happened.
But the monetary constraint is not the only factor that keeps
wood bats from becoming the bat of choice in college.
While some believe that a return to wood bats would help the
sport, others, like Savage, feel the effects of aluminum bats have
contributed to the popularity of the college game currently.
“People like runs, people like excitement, and right now,
college baseball is at an all-time high in terms of
interest,” Savage said. “You look at the numbers in the
super regionals and in Omaha’s (site of the College Baseball
World Series) attendance, and that is largely attributed to the
homerun.”
Savage also noted the recent increase in popularity has made
coaches hesitant to get rid of aluminum bats.
A Doable Change
If the NCAA pulled a 180-degree turn and decided to switch back
to the crack of the wood bat, there would be enough wood bats to
supply teams, according to Louisville Slugger spokesman Rick
Redman.
“There would be a huge demand, and we would definitely
have to ramp up production,” Redman said. “But at one
time, this company made seven to eight million bats a year compared
to making two million now. It would be a challenge, but it is
doable.”
Louisville Slugger is the predominant maker of wood and aluminum
bats, and according to Redman, it doesn’t matter which way
colleges go.
“We’re really in favor of choice for the coaches and
colleges.”
For now, the choice remains in favor of aluminum.