Everyone has their favorite, but which is safer?

Wood baseball bats or metal? This question was brought by the American Legion after an American Legion pitcher was hit by a line drive and died- in 2003.

When I first glanced at this, I thought they ment the breaking, bending, or throwing of them. The safety here is the line drive question, which is a safer hit- I guess.

The answer is ummm,

well,

they're the same.

“We were concerned then and we are concerned now for the safety of the game and the safety of the young athletes who participate in it,” said Larry Price, Chairman of the subcommittee. “With deference to the family of the young man we have given the matter our fullest attention over the last nine months. We have collected, compiled and distributed for the committee’s study a great deal of technical information, scientific analysis and expert opinion. We have heard from both camps – wood and non-wood – and we have found no clear evidence of unreasonable risk of injury or death with the use of non-wood bats in the game of baseball.”

That being said, Baseball is one of the safest sports around.

In a twenty-year study by the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research (1982-2002), 7 deaths of high school aged baseball players were recorded. In that same period, there were 6 deaths in soccer, 20 deaths in track, and 92 deaths associated with football. Price
offered that the game of baseball is one of the safest sports played today in high school and at the college level, noting that, “Injuries and, tragically, deaths occur in nearly every sport. By comparison, death on a baseball diamond is extremely rare.”