Time to Silence the Ping

[7hottamales]

Amazing how different people react to the same story.

I thought it was one of Bob's best. (I'm not exactly sure that was a compliment).

Well I can't say I disagree with his article. I just feel like for criticism to be constructive and worth thinking about, one is required to accompany the complaint with solution and analysis of how practical that solution would be to implement. That's why I felt the article was lazy and did nothing to further a tired obvious discussion.

[WSUwatcher]

Scoring

Charlie, I like seeing my team score, too -- but this isn't slow pitch softball.

The reduction in aluminum bat speed has helped, but I'd prefer to see wood bats used, too, and there's no doubt in my mind it could be made financially feasible. It would certainly help MLB in its scouting, so why couldn't they get involved with a subsidy?

[William]

Can you imagine wood bats in the valley? talk about boring baseball, the shcckers era in the valley might be under 1.00, this topic is never an issue until the postseason, when the best teams knock everybody around with the exception of the truly elite pitchers. The alluminum is fine for the college game and in my opinion college baseball would lose ground popularity wise without them, for the same reason I can't stand watching a fast-pitch sofball game.

[boyshocker]

Just deaden the alum. bats, it can be done.

[CharlieHog]

Oh it's not slow pitch softball. JP Kislanko over on rivals does a study every year that shows that scoring in college is on average equal to scoring in MLB. There were 3 MLB games last night in which the winning team scored 10 runs.

[moshock]

Going to the wood bat would take alot of excitement out of the college game. Our offense ran hot and cold all year this year. With wood bats, it would have just run cold. It is much more difficult to hit with a wood bat. You could throw out all of the offensive and pitching records, 75% of the homeruns and the team batting averages would be in the mid .200 - .250 range. That's not exciting.

Someone now makes a composite bat that is similar to wood. IIRC, they don't crack as easy as the wooden ones do.

Purely speculation but I don't imagine that the Shock's pay for their bats. There is probably some kind of "shoe" type deal. Lower profile teams may have to pay for their equipment though.

JMO, but I personally think that they have ruined the NBC tourney by going to a wood bat.

Interest in college baseball is at an all time high. Would it be more interesting with wooden bats ? Not in my opinion. It would compare to raising the goal in basketball to 12'.

I'm obviously not a baseball pureist. I enjoy the college game much more than I do MLB. Besides, what else would they do with all of the used beer cans ?

:wsu_posters:

[ShockBand]

The Brett brothers (yes, #5 of the glory KC days) market wood composite bats, of which some are guaranteed for 120 days. Prices run from about $60-100 per bat. Here is the site:

http://shopsite.brettbats.com/shopbats.html

[CharlieHog]

Arkansas uses Easton bats and several of our players use composite models. I don't know the benefit to the composite over the regular aluminum, but they even sound different.

[Awesome Sauce Malone]

I prefer wood bats.

My son uses both and hes 7.

I just want to watch good baseball

[BostonWu]

Interest in college baseball is at an all time high.

Can’t say I’ve really noticed a difference in the game’s popularity on a national scale. IMO the issue is not the bats but simply comes down to the issue of moving the season into warmer months. Of course that’s exactly what the sunbelt schools don’t want to happen but in order to truly gain nation-wide interest that’s what has to happen. If that means doing away with the traditional summer leagues then so be it.

[vbird53]

Do LaCrosse and Hockey schools have similar discussions about how to take their game to the national level?



IMO, baseball is different. It is (or was) the national passtime.



If we were able to get rid of all these minor league teams and independent baseball, I'm sure college baseball would see some growth...

[SHOCKvalue]

If we were able to get rid of all these minor league teams and independent baseball, I'm sure college baseball would see some growth...

Sure it would... massive growth. But schools like WSU, no matter our current level of history and facilities, would simply be left in the dust like a Camry playing with a Ferrari at a stop light. The landscape of college baseball would quickly change to one more similar to BCS football and D1 basketball.

Just my take...

[shock10]

MLB gets the best wood bat. Triple a get the next best wood bat. Double A gets the next best wood bat. Single A gets the next best wood bat. So what kind of wood bat does College baseball get?

[Rosewood]

If we were able to get rid of all these minor league teams and independent baseball, I'm sure college baseball would see some growth...

Sure it would... massive growth. But schools like WSU, no matter our current level of history and facilities, would simply be left in the dust like a Camry playing with a Ferrari at a stop light. The landscape of college baseball would quickly change to one more similar to BCS football and D1 basketball.

Just my take...

In BCS football and D1 basketball, there are still some programs (like Memphis in basketball) that can stand out. No reason WSU couldn't in this imaginary baseball future.

Also, until someone figures out a way for the bottom 200 NCAA baseball teams to be able to afford the wood bats, this is just jibber jabber.

[doomfarer]

my thoughts

I can tell you right now... Affordability is not the issue at all. The same deals they have with Easton or TPX could be made with the same exact companies for wood bats instead of metal. Teams go through TONS of metal bats in a season, more than you guys can even imagine. Bats get dented, caps fall off, grips fall off, bats crack or shatter. Cold weather affects metal bats a lot worse than anything and for the Shockers that is pretty important seeing as the first 10 games of the season are FREEZING! Longevity I do not think is the issue either because composite bats today last just as long as metal in my experience and I was the one throwing inside trying to break those bats. Composites just dont break and if they do, they stay in 2 pieces... not with shattering effects. I know for a fact that from AA up you cannot use composite bats so that could be a good solution.

I can tell you right now that wood bats would be better for college baseball because college baseball is basically one step down from trying to make it to professional baseball. If you think hitting homeruns with a metal bat impresses the scouts, think again. Those scouts make sure they see how the guy can hit with wood as well because some guys really cant touch a ball with wood the way they did in their college years. And it also goes the other way around... some guys hit a LOT better with wood. Wood bats would help players apsiring to go to the next level transition over to the wood bats they use in the minors and pros. It would be interesting to see them atleast try it for a year or two. People still would go to the game in packs and droves and there would still be tons of runs scored and homeruns everywhere. But I would like to see it atleast tried out other than in I think 2 college conferences, Not even NCAA.

The sound of baseball is the CRACK of a wood bat.