SHATTERED BATS TO BROKEN BONES!

(Global goods NETWORK, Mark Yost, Michael Hunt)

(United States Department of Agriculture, ESPN.com)

(Tom Howell Jr. Washington Times, Huffington Post)

(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Frazer Chronicle)

 

Okay maybe a poor comparison, a broken arm or leg sure as hell will hurt a lot worse than a broken baseball bat, but they are kind of the same. A body, on the professional level is little more than a tool that is used to accomplish a desired result. Baseball bats made of white ash, hickory, maple, bamboo or composite, (a mixture of different woods,) are designed to hit a baseball hard and far.

The human body is a mix of muscle, blood vessels, bone, and cartilage, finely tuned by years of exercise, practice, coaching and physical prowess. However the most important part of the body, being used as a tool for sports excellence rests a bit to the left of center in an athlete’s chest…..it’s the heart.

Playing with heart can make a mediocre athlete a tough nut to defeat, an athlete with great physical ability, who plays with little heart can be…..and usually is beaten by a player with less ability every day of the week.

I watched probably a hundred fifty baseball games this past regular season…..I have the Extra Inning package with my cable carrier and enjoyed every inning that I watched. During the course of the season, probably about August I noticed the number of baseball bats that were being broken…..to me, seemed to be escalating.

I kind of tucked the observation aside and continued to enjoy my summer of professional baseball, but then again, late in September, during the stretch drive for playoff position, I again noticed what to me seemed like an inordinate number of bats that were sawed off at the handle or simply blew up.

In my day…..about a hundred years ago, Hillerich & Bradsby was the baseball bat maker; their Louisville Slugger was used by all professional ball players. Before aluminum bats players would go through as many as four or five in a season and that was amateurs, I can’t even venture a guess at the number a professional went through.

From just a few bat makers in the 1960’s, today there are as many as 43 companies tooling out the hitter’s stick. Baseball, aluminum, softball, and composite bats, all boasting of the abilities that their bats can deliver to the wannabe big leaguer. On the other hand bat companies chase the big league hitter with furor, hoping to get an endorsement through an agreement for royalties as well as free baseball bats.

What’s been happening since maple was incorporated into the bat-masters material is a simple fact of the dynamics of wood, maple bats shatter, or explode on serious impact. Ash and hickory were the only woods used when I grabbed a war club, dragged it to home plate to further solidify my reputation as one of the worst hitters in the history of the game on any level.

The contact that I made usually was so poor that I had little reason to fear breaking the bat, much less shattering it. But today, big league hitters are zeroed in on hitting a baseball as hard and as far as they can…..it’s what makes money…..for everybody.

Now Major League Baseball has partnered with the United States Forest Service to come up with a plan to increase safety without taking the fun out of the game. Gee I didn’t know that the problem was that serious…..I mean, wow, the U.S. Forest Service, this sounds like there’s an epidemic of flying missiles that are endangering innocent baseball fans as well as players.

Here’s a suggestion that would probably cut in half the number of bats that blow up every summer…..eliminate the use of maple. In 2012 there were approximately 1,200 bats that were broken in the Major Leagues. That doesn’t sound like a very large number until you figure in another six to ten thousand bats that are broken throughout the minor leagues, and the hundreds of thousands that explode in the amateur ranks.

AND THAN THERE’S FOOTBALL

My annual watch of the Detroit Lions and how long it will take them to implode through stupid mistakes, penalties and inept play is off and running again. It’s been since 1957 since the Lions have tasted champagne while celebrating a championship…..wow, 56 years.

At least living in Green Bay I get to cheer for a possible winner, but along the way, this season, which is little more than a quarter spent I’m beginning to marvel at the number of injuries that is suffered each and every Sunday. Football is violent; its very nature of power versus fleet of foot at the point of attack leaves little to chance. It’s the 6’-5” 310 pounder against the 6’-5” 310 pounder, strength against strength, winner take all.

I like to watch a spirited professional football game, high school and college have their place, but it’s far behind the professional game. Huge men that run full out, their only objective to obliterate an opponent, it’s what their paid to do…..it is the essence of the game.

However I feel an uneasy presence involved with us football fans, kind of like Rome and the gladiators, the thumb up or down deal. When people run at one another full tilt, something’s gotta give, and here’s where the injury and the broken bones occur.

These highly skilled athletes have worked since they were teenagers to get to the utopia of their chosen sport, the length of their careers is short, 2 to 4 years, and the need to make as much money as possible usually overrides caution. And it’s here that we as fans share in the danger of the sport, we root and cheer for our team, are players, and the possibility of a championship.

I was ecstatic when the Packers won the Super Bowl…..and to be honest, I could have cared less about a players safety…..I just wanted to taste that champagne of a world champion. Looking back, now in my twilight years, I wonder if the injury that will always be associated with the game is really worth the effort, are we beginning to be a nation of Roman’s watching the gladiators do battle while we cheer for blood…..somewhere inside me I hope not!

HAVE A NICE DAY!