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Originally Posted by Jim Porter
There is a certain umpire on this forum (I won't mention his name -- he can say who he is if he wants) with whom I worked an MSBL (28+) game in Massachusetts one day a couple of years ago. He was the base umpire in, "B," and had a rocket smashed at him off a metal bat.
He had no chance to get out of the way. The best he could do was turn slightly. The ball nailed him in the wallet -- as I recall it actually broke his credit cards and driver's license in half. He also said he had a pretty good welt there for days afterwards.
That never would've happened with a wooden bat. He would've had the time to avoid the ball had it come off a wooden bat.
There's little doubt in my mind that metal is more dangerous.
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I have never seen a ball come off a bat hotter before or since. It's the only instance of batted ball umpire interference I've been involved with since I umpired my first game in 1983.
I had time to turn my *** cheek and that's it. The only reason my wallet was in my pocket in the first place was that we weren't in a terribly nice neighborhood, so my usual "leave keys, wallet, etc. in the car" didn't happen that day.
There's no way that ball comes off as hot with a wood bat.
I work and assign a 44-team wood bat league. If they ever go back to metal, I'd stop umpiring. All these 3-1, 4-3 ballgames over in 2:10 would be 12-10 3:30 slugfests. No thanks.