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Originally posted by crumii
I just stumbled on this forum, so I apologize if this has been a topic of conversation in the recent past.
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Only if you consider the recent past as a few years.
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I understand the need for certain limits to be placed on softball bats, but what is the purpose of the ASA (and other organizations) outlawing certain bats after one season? Did they not test the bat before the season? It seems like a big racket between the ASA and the bat manufacturers. Either a bat meets the ASA standard or it doesn't. Does the ASA lower their standard each year? Is there some logic here that I am missing?
Thanks for your opinions!
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Dave gave you the set on what is now set into place and why. Prior to that, the manufacturers were basically caught cheating. They offered a prototype for testing, then changed the production line and shifted the distribution of the weight without informing anyone. This change took the bats out of spec. This was only discovered by ASA folks walking into stores and buying bats off the shelf and submitting them for testing.
The bat companies played dumb (not too hard an act for some) and admitted they changed the bats' configuration, but stated they didn't believe it would make a difference. Now, understand here, these folks are producing a highly technical piece of equipment with measurements of some portions so small I wouldn't even know how to refer to them.
These guys knew exactly what they were doing and, in all honesty, the players should have been offended. The bat companies, with total disregard for the safety of the players, intentionally effected changes which juices the bat a bit more than permitted. Of course, most of the players were more worried about their home run ability than the termination of one's life or a lifetime of difiguration or handicap. FYI, to date, ASA has recorded on nine deaths. Unfortunately, you have a few idiots which compare that to the number of players and say, "so what, it's only 9 out of millions". The percentage isn't quite that low, but what difference does it make, number 10 may be you or me.
For the record, most umpires couldn't care less what the batters swing, we are not affected as much as the pitcher and infielders are by juiced bats.