Aluminum-Bats
Aluminum Baseball Bats Offer Benefits
Positive And Negative
Aluminum vs Wood Bats
New Era ...Modern Day...
Aluminum-Bats burst upon the scene of baseball in the 1970's. The metal-bats sprang onto the scene with the hey day of the space age travel became a part of our universe and the world of baseball will never be the same. It has been almost a constant baseball racket maker Ping Ping Ping ever since.
Is the metal bat provided by the aluminum family of bats needed in the game of baseball if it brings on a concern for player safety?
With the amazing proliferation of the baseball bat models styles and hyped characteristics for performance enhancing benefits the whole world of baseball bats has gone bats.
None of the aluminum, aluminum alloy, composite metal or any of the aluminum-bats of the metallic bat family of baseball bats are authorized to be used in professional baseball including Major League Baseball. This has been done for reasons of safety and competition. Modern aluminum-bats or metallic composite bats have been highly engineered. Special blends of metals and alloys, resulting in dangerously faster exits speeds for a baseball (BESR) than when hit with a wooden bat.
"Getting Spanked All Over The Ballpark With A Wood Bat Was Horrendous Enough But Now To Take Me To The Wood Shed Tanning My Hide And To Do It With An Aluminum-Bat Is Sort Of Humiliating."
"Here's To Getting Metal Slivers Into Your Hand Instead Of A Wood Splinter."
Are Aluminum bats dangerous? Yes by some counts aluminum-bats are now being used within the rules of the game but we must question are they more of a danger than first realized making our game more like needing the skills for dodge ball.
The racket we hear out at the baseball park is some what akin to the noise, you hear on a busy day with a large crowd going past the checkout registers at Walmart, with the ringing clangs of all the cash registers pinging like baseball hitting the aluminum baseball bats, reminds us of the controversy aluminum vs wood bats hitting baseballs.
Check it out and do more extensive browsing at any of the good merchants we have available for you. You might find all of our friendly shopping merchants at our One-Stop Shopping Center and buy a famous baseball cap or a baseball bat which says "PING."
This was mainly due to the fact that these types of baseball bats are lightweight, but also extremely durable. In the early years, it soon became apparent that the aluminum-bat made it very easy to sock the ball greater distances with the ball traveling at a speed compared to the speed of a rocket.
Although they don't provide the traditional "crack" of the bat, there is no doubt that aluminum-bats are a more potent weapon for players. Significant advantage of aluminum-bats, is that they are lighter than wood bats (capable therefore to generate more bat speed and power), and that they last longer
The use and the popularity of the new era youth-baseball-bat of composite metallic or the aluminum-bat battle stick is the rage of the age and is now fast becoming the most controversial item of baseball equipment.
Balls leaving the real wood-baseball-bats sounding like the sharp crack of a rifle shot gave way to the pinging sound of a winning coin toss landing in the glass dish at the carnival.
By golly we can easily tell by sound alone using aluminum-bats is "modern day" while the wood bats being used is "old school." A Brief Snippet History Of Aluminum
Before the Hall-Héroult process was developed in the late 1880s, aluminum was exceedingly difficult to extract from its various ores. This made pure aluminum more valuable than gold. Bars of aluminum were exhibited at the Exposition Universelle of 1855.
Napoleon III, Emperor of France, is reputed to have given a banquet where the most honored guests were given aluminum utensils, while the others made do with gold.
Aluminum was selected as the material to be used for the 100 ounce (2.8 kg) capstone of the Washington Monument in 1884, a time when one ounce (30 grams) cost the daily wage of a common worker on the project; The capstone, which was set in place on December 6, 1884, in an elaborate dedication ceremony, was the largest single piece of aluminum cast at the time, when aluminum was as expensive as silver.
Charles Martin Hall of Ohio in the U.S. and Paul Héroult of France independently developed the Hall-Héroult electrolytic process that made extracting aluminum from minerals cheaper and is now the principal method used worldwide.
Hall's process,in 1888 with the financial backing of Alfred E. Hunt, started the Pittsburgh Reduction Company today known as Alcoa.
Héroult's process was in production by 1889 in Switzerland at Aluminum Industrie, now Alcan, and at British Aluminum, now Luxfer Group and Alcoa, by 1896 in Scotland
Aluminum Today
Aluminum is the most widely used non-ferrous metal.Global production of aluminum in 2005 was 31.9 million tonnes. It exceeded that of any other metal except iron (837.5 million tonnes).
Production forecast for 2012 is 42–45 million tonnes, driven by rising Chinese output.
Aluminum is almost always alloyed, which markedly improves its mechanical properties, especially when tempered. For example, the common aluminum foils and beverage cans are alloys of 92% to 99% aluminum.
The main alloying agents are copper, zinc, magnesium, manganese, and silicon (e.g., duralumin) and the levels of these other metals are in the range of a few percent by weight.
The aluminum-bats is a johnny come lately addition to the many uses of the aluminum alloyed metal uses. Now that the use of the aluminum baseball-bat is so widely used it has developed into a power war by bat companies, who can out engineer the other, to provide the ultimate power hitting weapon?
So the world of amateur play of baseball by popular demand brought on the aluminum and metallic bats like gang busters.
Soon it became apparent the advancement in the composition of metallic aluminum-bats and the elasticity of materials a whole new term was generated "BESR." Yes indeed the Ball-Exit-Speed-Ratio is the term of physics used to determine the speed of a hit ball leaving the barrel of these aluminum bats.
We love the power these bats generate in propelling the ball but it becomes a point of true safety when the hit baseball becomes a virtual missile. The real issue now has evolved are the aluminum (metallic composite) bats dangerous?
Aluminum & Composite metal-bats for Baseball. Aluminum & Composite metal-bats for Softball.
The market for college aluminum baseball bats and all other type of baseball equipment and use of different materials expanded in the twentieth century throughout America.
The aluminum-bats exploded onto the American marketplace filling the hands of all softball playing leagues and the hard swinging pony tail fillies of the softball world.
The ladies playing softball had never really been attuned to the sharp crack of a well hit ball using the wood-baseball-bats as much as the boys. The girls loved the ping of the aluminum-bats and have grown so lovingly accustomed to the bigger sweet spot of the metal-bats.
Wooden bats remained prone to breakage and splintering no matter how well the bat was made. The "sweet spot" on wooden bats, the spot on the barrel of the bat where one wanted to strike the ball was a more precise location on a wooden bat.
Using the wood baseball-bat one will need a little bit better eye-hand coordination to kiss that ball on the sweet spot of a wooden bat than when using the aluminum-bat.
Little league and high school level of play have grown a little leery of these space age metal bats. College coaches using the college aluminum baseball bats at the college level of play rave on about these out of sight home run slamming battle sticks.
It was in this era that a former baseball player turned inventor in Dayton, Ohio, William Shroyer, developed his ideas regarding a long lasting, economical and perhaps indestructible bat, the metal-bat.
A patent number 1,499,128, was filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in June, 1924, Shroyer filed detailed diagrams and a description of the proposed metal bat design.
Shroyer described the purpose of his design as one that would provide the lightness, springiness, and resiliency of the current wood construction.
Shroyer wanted to avoid the wood splitting and splintering that commonly occurred with wood. Shroyer also set out in his patent diagrams a threaded aperture in the head of the bat, a device that provided a place for the insertion of additional weight in the bat barrel if desired by a batsman.
It is evident from the patent office records that Shroyer had directed considerable care to his invention. It is equally ironic that Shroyer never commercially marketed his all-metal bat, and there is little evidence to suggest that he was ever able to manufacture a model beyond that of a prototype.
The Shroyer metal bat patent is significant and changed forever the Baseball Bat World in the history of baseball as well as sports science. The first one piece aluminum baseball bat produced and commercially sold and mass marketed and used by youth baseball teams was produced by the Worth Sports Company in 1970.
The Worth aluminum baseball bat was introduced and adopted as the bat of choice for use in Little League Baseball.
Since we now have the well received aluminum-bats and composite metals accepted widely with humpteen choices and many colors the controvesy rages on about this Aluminum vs Wood Bats and concerns of safety.
Baseball equipment and bat companies such as Easton established significant markets for their aluminum-bats in the softball, and collegiate baseball markets.
Aluminum / composite baseball bats are generally preferred over wooden bats due to their light weight and high strength (note: pro players are allowed to use wood bats only).
Lighter bats are generally preferable to heavier bats as they allow the hitter to generate enough speed to put some "ooomph" into it (although there are restrictions about bat weights at most levels).
An aluminum-bat is hollow, the center of gravity is down towards the hands, which makes for a faster swing; the wooden bat's center of gravity is further down the barrel, causing slower arc swing or restricted limiting ability to generate excessive bat speed.
Along with the coming of age of the metal or aluminum-bat made the rules makers take a pause just like Coca Cola bids us to take a refreshing pause and enjoy Coca Colas. Baseball rules must keep pace with the advent of newer equipment being put to use.
This rules thing brought forth the BESR Bat Certification safety dilemma and thus the roar of controversy.
A big reason why the major leagues won't allow them is because they can be swung faster and the bat speed translates into the ball being propelled at mega warp speeds. These aluminum designed bats now being produced can send the ball away at dangerous missile frightening speeds.
The uncanny terrific ball velocity could cause too many serious potential injuries. This is due to the fact that the ball will have a lot more velocity when hit and can approach dangerous speeds making the ball be like a bullet or projectile.
Additionally, baseball aluminum-bats can provide more "pop" of the baseball off the bat, and are much more durable and some think more cost effective than the wooden bats.
Bats today are becoming increasingly high tech and expensive - with youth bats cost reaching or exceeding $200+ price levels.
Many factors of which bat to use but have we thought much about what happens to trusty ole bat when our playing days are finished? Well good buddy our baseball bats beyond baseball leads many more useful purposes. How about them apples?
How heavy or best yet what weight of a baseball aluminum-bat should a player normally use? Worth Sports conducted a study with the University of Arizona, in which they determined the best equivalent aluminum-bats weight for hitters, based on the players height. The table below summarizes their findings.
Aluminum-Bat Weight Guidelines: (Using a players height, (for the 11-12 year group), formula)
Special Note Here at the 11-12 year age group we use players weight instead of his height in the formulation. Players weight(lbs.)/Bat weight(oz.)
Baseball-bat length should be a function in relation of the bat weight. The bat weight is the controlling factor as to the bat a player can properly manage and have good bat control, bat speed and body control.
The baseball player will often find his bat choice by feel and this weight factor controls in most part this feel.
As you have noted and found out by the foregoing information there are a few data consideration for finding the right bat for the young beginning baseball players. One of the simplest and most straight forward bits of information for choosing aluminum-bats for your youngster is simply to use the chart below.
Determine the most probable needed Bat Length by Age-- Age / Bat length
A baseball player will take some imaginary swings and he will also take his normal grip but held loosely and extends the bat straight out from his body parallel to the ground. What he is calculating in his Thinker is how the weight of the baseball bats compute to his precisely perceived feel for great bat control.
Remember in our baseball hitting elements one of the elements is this thing known as bat control. Baseball hitting needs one to have great control of his bat that fraction of and inch of placing the sweet spot of the bat onto little white baseball is in nano seconds of acute timing.
Baseball terminology uses many well worn phrases associated with your baseball bat such as it is only right if it "feels right" It is called "lumber" only if it is wood.
Baseball aluminum-bats are measured using their length to weight ratio, a negative number that represents how many ounces a bat weighs compared to it's length in inches.
For example, a 32 inch bat that weighs 28 ounces is a - 4. The largest ratio is in the range of -12 (for little league bats), while college and high school bats are restricted to a - 3.
These restrictions are for safety reasons - a college or high school player swinging a very light bat (- 4 +) would simply have too much power and could pose a danger to other players on the field.
Make sure to check the regulations of your league before buying any of the expensive baseball aluminum-bats!
Using the above formulas first determine the correct or recommended standardized weight of bat and apply the league sanctioned ratio to get the right recommended length.
Example: 10 year old standing 52 inches tall needs an aluminum-bat weighing 17 ounces then applying league regulation ratio of say a minus eight -8 the bat length would be 25 inch bat.
Go get em Titans, Tigers, Wildcats, Gophers or Huskies, but come home a winner!
Now in this era of power strokes using the baseball aluminum-bats have opened a new can of worms dealing with safety. A baseball leaving the bat at zinging warp speed from these newly developed composite materials is phenomenal.
Times change, baseball rules change and game of baseball is not immune to change so the aluminum-bat is now in the center of change of time, rules and baseball change.
Actually our baseball spikes have made changes from the sharp steel plated cleats to the hard plastic or molded rubber soled baseball shoe.
Who knows or Who Dat with all the changes we may even be looking at squared off bills on our baseball caps come spring time.
Aluminum-Bats Care Tips
Other thoughts and things of concern about your Baseball Bat Care.
You might be part of the baseball group feeling the wood bat is the only way to play the game. You are in the chips for Annex Bat with their hard Maple bats produced for maximum long time use is available.
Holy Cow the aluminum bat did not splinter but it took a sharp sawing off by a Vandy pitcher in the College World Series 2010.
How the most interesting play of the game was a foul ball?
That was the case in Florida-Vanderbilt game at the College World Series, when sophomore Gators catcher Mike Zunino most definitely gave fans in the third base-side stands a good scare by breaking his aluminum bat on a fastball and sending the barrel spinning out of control.
By Luck, nobody was seriously injured and even though Florida defeated Vanderbilt 6-4 to reach the finals, Commodores senior reliever Mark Lamm can now say that even an aluminum bat is no match for his heater.
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Batter Up----Let's Play Ball....