National Federation rule chances for 2007

[UMP25]

I don't know about the rest of the guys here, but I'd much prefer to get hit by a tennis ball at 145 mph than a baseball at 95 mph.

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by SAump

Also look at another sport, tennis. Their racquets follow the same timeline of wood, steel and plastic resin polymers. The serves and volleys now reach speeds of 145 mph. I don't see anyone in the tennis circles demanding a reduction in serving velocity.

Can tennis balls rise when served at that speed?

Just wondering.....

[Tim C]

Hahahahaha,

Regards,

[mcrowder]

Jurassic - funniest post in weeks. Thanks.

[David B]

I would think is going in the direction because so many of the 'small ball' players have grown up wearing helmets.

I know all of our local leagues (my son is playing in least) requires all batters to wear a helmet with facemask, I would guess FED is going that way since many of the kids have grown up wearing them?

But it does seem kind of strange since we played in a tourney that did not require facemasks and the first thing some of the kids did was take their face mask off (g)

But for the defense to wear a helmet, that's going to be strange ...

Thansk
David

[GarthB]

Originally Posted by David B

But for the defense to wear a helmet, that's going to be strange ...

Thansk
David

According to surveys on sports injuries, the vast majority of facial injuries to baseball players are suffered by players on defense. Hot line drives, bad bounces, etc.

[briancurtin]

Originally Posted by SAump

The Japanese love to play our game. Perhaps we can "take away" something from their game. Their "nankyu baseballs are renowned in Japan for their safety and durability." 70 years of baseball tested. Changing the baseball and leaving everything else alone is so much cheaper. The wood bats do not prevent death. Helmets are much more costly. If NFHS knew about this baseball, I feel they would also find this alternative more acceptable than restrictive bat and helmet laws.

Here is some of the dish. http://www.kenkobaseball.com/about.html

Here is some more written in Japanese. http://www.jsbb.or.jp/

lets just play with those squishsy balls that are used in t-ball, or the ones they give away at minor league games...

better yet, just use wiffle balls. as long as no one is standing less four feet from the batter, there will be no fatalaties.

[Rich]

Originally Posted by GarthB

According to surveys on sports injuries, the vast majority of facial injuries to baseball players are suffered by players on defense. Hot line drives, bad bounces, etc.

If this change is implemented, I predict that at least a few of the states will tell the NFHS to take a flying leap.

[bob jenkins]

Originally Posted by LDUB

I thought BESR made the speed of the ball coming off non wood bats equal to the speed of a ball of a wooden bat.

"The best major league bat yielded a BESR of 0.728, which the NCAA then set to be the maximum allowed value."

http://www.npl.uiuc.edu/~a-nathan/po...WhitePaper.pdf

I think (my opinion only) that while the maximum speed might be (approximately) the same, the area on the bat that can produce that speed is much larger on an aluminum bat than on the wood bat. So, more balls come off the bat at / near the maximum speed on an aluminum bat, and there are more balls that cause / nearly cause severe injuries.

[DG]

It appears from the article that the testing was done with a pitch speed of 70mph and bat speed of 66 mph. Don't know about the bat speed estimate but many HS and college pitchers are throwing fastballs at greater than 70 mph and the difference could be signficant. Having worked spring HS and college games with aluminum and college summer leagues with wood, I can say from observation that there is signficant difference. BESR does not produce an aluminum bat that approximates wood, it just sets an upper limit standard for aluminum, that may come close as long as pitchers will throw 70 mph or less.

[briancurtin]

Originally Posted by bob jenkins

I think (my opinion only) that while the maximum speed might be (approximately) the same, the area on the bat that can produce that speed is much larger on an aluminum bat than on the wood bat. So, more balls come off the bat at / near the maximum speed on an aluminum bat, and there are more balls that cause / nearly cause severe injuries.

i totally agree with this. with an aluminum bat, nearly half of the bat is the sweet spot on a lot of models, producing that maximum speed much more often.

[TussAgee11]

Originally Posted by briancurtin

i totally agree with this. with an aluminum bat, nearly half of the bat is the sweet spot on a lot of models, producing that maximum speed much more often.

And you can swing them faster

[LDUB]

Originally Posted by DG

It appears from the article that the testing was done with a pitch speed of 70mph and bat speed of 66 mph. Don't know about the bat speed estimate but many HS and college pitchers are throwing fastballs at greater than 70 mph and the difference could be signficant. Having worked spring HS and college games with aluminum and college summer leagues with wood, I can say from observation that there is signficant difference. BESR does not produce an aluminum bat that approximates wood, it just sets an upper limit standard for aluminum, that may come close as long as pitchers will throw 70 mph or less.

That is wrong, at all speeds the exit speed of a BESR non wood bat would be the same as a wood bat. The non wood bat may have a larger area that will produce maximum exit velocity, but it will not be faster than a wood bat with an equal BESR.

V(ball exit) = Vbat( BESR + .5 ) + Vball( BESR -.5)

[TussAgee11]

Originally Posted by LDUB

That is wrong, at all speeds the exit speed of a BESR non wood bat would be the same as a wood bat. The non wood bat may have a larger area that will produce maximum exit velocity, but it will not be faster than a wood bat with an equal BESR.

V(ball exit) = Vbat( BESR + .5 ) + Vball( BESR -.5)

But, Vbat increases when you use aluminum, its lighter

[umpduck11]

Originally Posted by LDUB

That is wrong, at all speeds the exit speed of a BESR non wood bat would be the same as a wood bat. The non wood bat may have a larger area that will produce maximum exit velocity, but it will not be faster than a wood bat with an equal BESR.

V(ball exit) = Vbat( BESR + .5 ) + Vball( BESR -.5)

One thing that worries me is, if I'm not mistaken, the NFHS does not
verify or certify the BESR of bats. They simply take the word of the manufacturer. Who's to know if the testing done on the bats is accurate?
Also, wasn't there a former employee (engineer?) of one of the bat
companies that claimed that the BESR is BS ?