Metal bat blamed for severe head injury to young pitcher

Loveland father goes on crusade after son was nearly killed by line drive

The ball got there too fast.

You can read mounds of studies from both sides of the wood vs. non-wood bat issue. You can read testimony until your eyes water. The arcane language invoked to explain the physics of the matter - Bat Exit Speed Ratio, Ball Exit Velocity, Trampoline Effect - is enough to make you seek asylum on a deserted island.

The debate is complex, passionate and endless and no one is neutral. Either high-performance, non-wood bats are a safety hazard, or they aren't.

Either they cause kids to be killed or permanently injured, or they don't. (Bat companies use the term "non-wood'' rather than "metal'' or "aluminum'' because their products now contain materials that are not entirely metal.)

Proponents say non-wood bats are no more dangerous than wood. Their technological superiority over wood allows more children to enjoy baseball to a greater extent than they would using a wooden bat. They're cost effective, because they don't break.

Opponents say hits from non-wood bats can kill kids.

Read the studies, analyze the data, choose your side. Ultimately, it comes down to this:

The ball got there too fast.

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