Sat May 03, 2003, 07:56am
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Official Forum Member
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Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: USA
Posts: 14,565
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Re: bats
Quote:
Originally posted by Tap
My understanding is that, to be legal, bats must (1) have ASA 2000 stamp, (2) be on ASA approved list, or, (3) if made before 1995, would conform to current bat performance standards (umpires discretion).
All bats on ASA web site requiring recertification are illegal unless they bear ASAs new recertification stamp (in shape of baseball field -- different from ASA 2000 stamp). The following three bats are banned and not capable of recertification: (1) Miken Ultra (gray color) Maxload, (2) Miken Ultra (gray color) Balanced, and (3) Steeles XXX. [Miken Ultra II is legal and not on banned list, for now anyway].
The most common mistake is for people to confuse the ASA 2000 certification with the new recertification stamp. All banned bats have the former, as it was put on the bat before it was banned. Many umpires get this wrong -- I've seen it happen.
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#3 above has been changed to "manufactured prior to 2000". This change scares me as this allows an umpire to pass judgment on a bat containing titanium. Remember, it is the umpire's judgment on whether it would have passed the present testing and some of the younger officials may not be totally aware of the titanium bats.
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The bat issue in softball is as much about liability, insurance and litigation as it is about competition, inflated egos and softball.
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