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Letter to the Editor
As I read The City Paper article, and others, on the new metal (aluminum) baseball bats, I continue to wonder about the cost per bat.
I would like to know the actual cost incurred by teams for the metal bats. My memory tells me that originally, the NCAA, and other college sanctioning bodies, went to metal bats as a cost-saving measure. However, until this year, apparently many teams were investing in the expensive composite bats to gain an (illegal) edge. Imagine that: cheating in baseball.
So how long will it be before some clever engineer conjures up a new bat with a larger “sweet spot”?
What is the cost difference between wood bats and the current metal version? How long does a metal bat actually last?
Why don’t they just end this madness and go back to wood bats the way Abner Doubleday and God intended?
Disclosure: I confess I am a baseball purist. I don’t even like “batting gloves” and you don’t want to hear me rant about the designated hitter farce.
James Ladd
Nashville 37207
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Yeah, and those double-headers are a farsce, too.
A metal bat has to outlast a wooden one. Growing up, as a poor child in Detroit without a legal birth certificate, I remember many Detroit Tigers breaking their Louisville Sluggers every game.
No one, even on steriods, can break a metal bat.
Metal bats do not break in half... with the jagged, splintered, business end flying off randomly at a murderous velocity....like wooden bats are prone to do.
Back in the early days, virgin ash trees, yielding lumber clear of knots, with a tight grain were commonplace. The "settlers" thoughtlessly over-logged the Eastern hardwood forests leaving "trash" species to re-propagate the ravaged woodlands.
Bottom line, today's wood is just not as good...and today's sluggers are professional athletes aided by scientific advances in nutrition, training and strength conditioning.
James Ladd may be a "purist", but the game itself, as played in the MLB, is anything but pure, IMO.
To me, the game is played out....billionaire owners and millionaire players playing too many games in a season that runs too long. Tickets are way too expensive and the "peanuts and popcorn" are unaffordable and inferior in quality.....then there's the parking hassles....and the possibility of being mugged in the parking lot....or getting popped in a DWI sting just outside the ballpark, on the drive home.
Sorry, it's just not worth the money, the hassle and the risk.
Don't get me wrong, I like to play baseball...I don't care to watch others do it. Unlike football and other games, regular folks can get together for a game of friendly softball and have some old-fashioned fun in the sun. You don't have to be a jock to play baseball, but it certainly helps....it's a game the entire family can play...with a little modification of the basic rules, to accommodate the kids and "grampa".
Add'l: I have to admit, the sounding "crack" of the wooden bat hitting the ball far exceeds the "ping" of a metal one.
I agree, with an ash bat you get better crack.
The sound of hard wood on leather-clad balls appeals to many purists, Darge. As a barkeep, I'm sure you hear the testimonials.
Well, I'm not a baseball fan, so I guess I'm a$$-out on this one.
Mornin', folks.
Some are posting on the Ken Whitehouse board, House....I left some droppings there too....and a good morning to you...and the rest of the Misfits.
I love the Sunday teleconferencing...the only two voices that I can recognize are Nemo's and BN's...we need a video link up....of course, I have one of those faces suitable for the radio....although one lady in Niagara Falls, Ontario Canada, last Saturday night, blurted out, "Look, it's Willie Nelson!" No lie.
House: You into golf? "Bet you have a lot of stories of your ball landing in the rough..."
Lacey Underalls, "Caddy Shack".
Loner said:
Metal bats do not break in half...
This is anecdotal, but I broke a metal bat in high school. Of course it was just a freak occurrence, but it split in two and the barrel made it all the way to the second baseman. Looking at it later it appeared to be the combination of a bad seam, a 90+ mph pitcher and an inside fastball, but damn if it didn't make me feel awesome.
I'd like to see the Preds using aluminum hockey sticks.
Let's say that aluminum bats are less apt to snap...they usually bend before they will break, or so I understand.
Aluminum pucks too, House....for some serious hockey....hard rubber is for sissies.
Loner,
Did those women really say "Look, it's Willie Nelson!"?
May I comment; beauty is in the eyes of the beholder..... and Willie Nelson ain't no pretty man.
One woman, Caucasian and about fifty said it to her female friend...in a voice loud enough to draw attention...this occurred in the lobby of the Imperial Hotel, on the Canadian side of the falls. You'll have to take my word on that...or you could call the hotel and ask for witnesses...the desk clerk got a charge out of it too.
Like I said, Yogi, I have a face for radio....but, if an old white man has to look like someone else, let it be Willie...looking like Willie Nelson is a good thing, not a bad thing and frankly, it's more than I deserve.
Long Live Willie Nelson...it's 4/20!
yogiman said:
May I comment; beauty is in the eyes of the beholder..... and Willie Nelson ain't no pretty man.
Making it known that you have thought about the attractiveness of Willie Nelson is enough to get you fired yogiman, I'd watch it if I were you!
Then again, I'm sure you would have no choice but to agree that your firing was necessary. After all we wouldn't want Billy's work to be disturbed by the distinct possibility that you are gay.
Sounds fair right?
Forgive the topic change, it was too easy.
Accepted. I'll just consider the source and ignore it.
I admit it, I ain't no pretty man neither...does that mean I'm gay...just for grading my own attractiveness? Or does that mean that, by using a double negative, I am actually a closet narcissist?
Gotta roll now, see ya!
Everyone knows 'who' they are, Loner. It's just hard for some of them to understand 'what' they are.
We certainly know what you are yogi.
Virgin Ash….there is no such a thing as a virgin in Detroit when d7 was living there. ;-)
By: gdiafante on 4/20/11 at 11:08
We certainly know what you are yogi.
*******************************************************************************************
You are just a big old dumba..,
Speak for yourself, dumba..
And gdiafante, you apparently you don't have enough intelligence in that little pea sized brain to know what I am.
No, I've read your posts. Your homophobic, racist, ignorant and very old.
Should I be more specific and cite the exact posts where you exhibit this behavior?
s/h/b you're
Well,
I'll repeat, gdiafante, you don't know me. I am an American. A true American. I don't know about you on that issue, and I'm surely wondering just how American you truly are. Racists, I would willingly bet I'm much less racist than you and others on this site. Ignorant? I would gladly compare my intelligence to yours and the others on this site. Dumb in some ways? Yes. Stupid in you ways? No.
Anyone who willingly accepts a person into the Oval Office of our nation who will not show their eligibility is not only a damn fool, the are not a true American. That means, you don't give a damn about this nation.
Maybe you have the answer as to why everyone in today's circumstances, is willing to to show their birth certificates but Barack Hussein Obama isn't. Maybe you can also explain why all of the records on a particular man cannot be found in Hawaii, Kenya and Indonesia.
Really, what do you actually know about the man other than who he says he is.
Hey ALL,
About that INFLATION I predicted...does it look like it's going to happen NOW?