The New York City Council on Tuesday voted to override Mayor Michael Bloomberg's veto of the Council's recent move to ban metal bats and enact the legislation forcing the ban. A lawsuit is expected to be filed within days by a number of interested parties seeking an immediate and permanent injunction of the new law. The ban, which would take effect in September, would force over 9,600 players from more than 600 teams in the five boroughs to shelve all metal bats in favor of wood.

It is estimated that as many as 9 out of every 10 amateur players use metal bats.

In opposition to the ban, “Don't Take My Bat Away,” a newly-formed group representing coaches, players, youth baseball enthusiasts and batmakers, will file a lawsuit seeking to block the ban.

“Don't take my son's bat away,” said Anne Berg, the mother of a high school ballplayer in Brooklyn. “Baseball is an incredibly safe sport, and this bill won't make it any safer. I can maybe see bans on cigarettes and trans-fats, but baseball bats? If the City Council really wants to improve safety in baseball, they'd fix up the fields.”

Donald Douglas, director of the Public Schools Athletic League, said: “Baseball in the New York City public schools is safe and thriving a generation after metal bats were introduced. Coaches and kids like them, and they have helped add to the excitement of the game. There is no compelling reason to make a change.”

Charlie O'Donnell, former coach, athletic director and current VP of the Catholic High School Athletics Association, added: “This is not fair to the kids. High school players everywhere else will still use metal bats and colleges all use metal. Since metal bats have a bigger sweet spot and don't break, they help raise batting averages. So banning metal bats hurts New York City kids seeking a college scholarship or spot on the team, because their stats will be lower. This is a bad law, it should have never passed, and Mayor Bloomberg was right to veto it. City Council really struck out on this one,” said O'Donnell.

Marty Archer, president of Louisville Slugger and speaking for all batmakers in the coalition, said: “I am announcing today on behalf of a newly formed coalition of coaches, players, parents and bat makers known as 'Don't Take My Bat Away,' that we will soon file a suit in federal court seeking an injunction preventing enforcement of this ban. If New York City proceeds to take metal bats away from its players, baseball in New York will suffer and so will the City's school children. When it comes to playing and enjoying baseball, athletes should have a choice. They can and should be able to safely choose between a wood bat and a metal bat without the government telling them what to do, especially when the sport is already plenty safe.”

Baseball Is a Very Safe Sport

  -- The National Collegiate Athlete Association (NCAA) Injury Surveillance
     System has found that men's baseball is one of the safest of the 15
     NCAA sports surveyed, and has a game injury rate lower than, for
     example, football, soccer, lacrosse, women's basketball, women's
     gymnastics and field hockey. Only women's volleyball and women's
     softball are ranked safer sports.
  -- A study by the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research
     at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill showed that in the
     past 20 years, a catastrophic injury to a pitcher occurred only once
     for every million high school aged participants.
  -- By contrast, according to the National Safety Council, the odds of
     being killed in a car accident are 1 in 6,498, but no one has proposed
     banning cars. The odds of being killed falling off a ladder are 1 in
     697,000, but no one has proposed banning ladders. And the odds of
     drowning in a bathtub are 1 in 876,000, but no one has proposed banning
     baths.

  Wood Bats and Aluminum Bats Are Safe

  -- The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) stated "Available
     incident data are not sufficient to indicate that non-wood bats may
     pose an unreasonable risk of injury." [April 5, 2002]
  -- In a letter to a petitioner seeking CPSC regulation of non-wood bats,
     the CPSC wrote, "You have provided no information, nor is the
     Commission aware of any, indicating that injuries produced by balls
     batted with non-wood bats are more severe than those involving wood
     bats."
  -- The CPSC wrote, "Based on its review of all the available information,
     the Commission concluded that a mandatory standard is not reasonably
     necessary to address an unreasonable risk of injury posed by non-wood
     bats."


Bat Performance Is Regulated by the Governing Bodies for Youth and Amateur Baseball

  -- Since 2003, metal bats used in high schools have been scientifically
     regulated so that the speed of batted balls off metal bats does not
     exceed that of the best major league wood bats. This standard has been
     adopted by the NCAA and the National Federation of State High School
     Associations (NFHS).
  -- A ban on non-wood bats is opposed by American Legion Baseball, the
     NFHS, NCAA, American Baseball Coaches Association, Little League, Babe
     Ruth League and PONY League. In New York City, the ban is opposed by
     the Public School Athletic League and the Catholic High School Athletic
     Association.

                            Ban Non-Wood Bats?

                      Here's What They're Saying ...

“The highest priority of the world's largest organized youth sports program has always been, and will continue to be, the safety of our nearly 3 million annual participants … Considering there were approximately 170 million at bats by nearly 3 million players in 2005, we do not believe the injury data warrants such a wide sweeping change based on perception and anecdotal information alone.”

  -- Stephen D. Keener
     President, Little League International