The Official Forum - ASA 2011 Equipment & Testing Certification Committee Meeting

ETCC

Bats & Balls

Point made a few times was that the 52/300 is not the answer to everything. The early reports were not as positive as anticipated, but have improved as the data from the multiple sessions of testing have come in and been evaluated. The two points that were the most positive are not in doubt are that the severity of an injury is greatly reduced and there is minimal effect on the ball by the temperature.

It was quite apparent that the concern was that the manufacturers are still developing and working to get this ball produced with consistency.

From a couple sources it seems that the 52/300 reacts better to the older bats, so bringing out the newer ones may not be a plus for the hitter. The data is showing that the 52/300 is more lively coming off the bat than the 44/375.

Don Cooper(Combat) did ask the chair if there was any consideration in dropping the bats which were produced prior to ASA incorporating the ABI application in their testing procedures. The response was that there had been updated data received this morning (which was anticipated for this meeting) and this possibility would be discussed in a closed meeting this afternoon.

Bottom line is that as of this point, it seems there will be no drastic addition of bats to the approved list.

Bat Warmers

Due to further testing on this issue, it was discovered that the original testing was basically cursory and only took into consideration the commercial bat warmer was being used in accordance with the manufacturer's direction. What was found is that not all bat warmers carry the same temps and there is nothing keeping the user to not exceed the recommended usage to reach much higher temperatures than intended and the character of the bat can be affected by the heating of the bat while being used.

A bat can be heated to a temp of 150F as opposed to the approx. 75F that is somewhat the norm prior to heating. The difference is the compression decreases from 250 to 210 which creates an approximate difference in BBS of 2.2 mph.