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Originally Posted by Dakota
No argument, but that position seems to necessitate umpires being familiar with a list of 95 (and growing), non-approved bats, thereby rendering the entire process unenforceable by anyone without eidetic memory. There is a large market for "banned in OKC" bats, and that market is not going away. IMO, ASA needs to move to plan B.
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And it also requires umpires to have built up a personal history of softball bats that have "been around" since before ASA started testing. Sure, most of us can recognize a bat from the 1980s, but what about bats from '98 or '99?
I've been in softball long enough to know most of the old bats (and I certainly miss my trusty Bombat - 33", 34 oz.!), even the triangular ones (god, remember those?). But a younger blue may not be able to tell the difference between a bat from '98 and a bat that the manufacturer never intended to get approved by ASA. At that point, it's not only a consistency issue, but the precise safety issue that was raised earlier.