besr
 

Will someone explain BESR? What is an allowable baseball exit speed off the bat of a 90 mph pitch?

How does BBCOR compare and why is it any better, from other than PC marketing ploy.

Will bats be any safer or "softer" other than shorten the lifespan of a thin aluminum bat, ala more sales.

I think the testing protocols are on the NCAA website. That might provide you some guidance.

As an umpire, the only thing you have to be concerned with is that between now and 2012, bats that have BESR and BBCOR labels permanently affixed to the bats, are legal. From 2012 on (until the FED gods rule otherwise), BESR will be an illegal bat.

Why do I say this? Because trying to figure out why the metal bat manufacturers try to make a bat to mimic wood is just idiotic. If you want wood, play with wood - it's that simple! Trying to make a bat with the same exit speed and quality of hit that wood provides, just kills the idea of the metal bat. Metal was supposed to make "stars" out of average players. Well, it doesn't and no argument can convince me until MLB allows metal bats - which I hope they never will.

If you want to learn all about all of this BESR & BBCOR stuff, GOOGLE it. Just remember, it will not make you a better umpire.

When they first started "monkeying" with bat specifications, I said, and still say, the cheapest and easiest was to alter the game for speed of the ball off the bat is to doctor the BALL. A $5 ball is a lot cheaper than a $250 bat. But, like lots of other things, greater minds than mine are at work on things like that....

JJ

All good advice
 

Caught up on the new NFHS 2011 guidelines about bats in another thread. Planning how to tell a coach that his $300 bat has the wrong label before he flips out about it. Thanks for redirecting me back to baseball.

If I had any input at all, I would allow BESR until they vanished. I just wouldn't wipe them all out in 2012 when the remaining bats hit $50. Reminds me how the drinking age changed from 18 to 21 and the poor guys serving in the Army were told not to drink beer until they turned 21. Yeah right.

Just noted earlier thread attribution to Rich Ives when it should have been attributed to RichMSN. Entirely my fault.

The wrong guy to flip out on would be the umpire. Coach should understand the guidelines before dishing out the money. Pretty simple to me.

There's not much you can do with the ball. The ball is not what provides the energy of its flight--and it is already in a form that is not conducive to conservation of kinetic energy.

Hmmmm....25 years ago when I was umping slow pitch softball (for the final season!), they were using restricted flight softballs. Probably still are. Seems to me it would be cheaper to "fix" the balls than the bats...

JJ

The balls used in fastpitch, men's slow pitch, women's slow pitch, etc. all have different CORs, as well as the bat standards.

Adjust the COR of the ball. That's how you get restricted flight balls and RIF balls. Current ball specs for approved baseballs (not necessarily in the rule books) include the COR requirement. FED 1-3-1 lists the FED restriction.