Lit Review

Baseball bats have evolved and have changed the way the game is played due to the
material that bats are legally allowed to be made out of. Wooden bats (Mussill, 2000) have
always been the most common form of baseball bat, but there have also been made from metal as
well as another material called composite which is a mixture of carbon, fiber glass, and other
compounds. With the sport getting more intense and dangerous (Cain, 2014) over time,
regulations have had to be made on the bats that are able to be used to keep people from getting
injured as well as to make homeruns not as big of a factor in close games. The introduction of
alloy bats in the 1970s and composite bats in the early 2000s had a lot to do with the making of
these regulations because the players were starting to hit the ball at unsafe speeds as well as the
games were starting to become much more higher scoring all around. This was due to the fact
that the metallic bats had a lot more pop and propulsion of the ball off the bat.
With the regulations of bats changing, a study was done on childrens wood and nonwood
small barrel baseball bats and nonwood big barrel bats to test the BPF (Jones, Sherwood, Drane,
2008) or bat performance factor. Using experimental data, scientist studied that nonwood big
barrel bats had the highest BPF followed by the nonwood small barrel and then the wood small
barrel. This data was analyzed and plugged into the formulas used to measure different statistics
and evaluations of different regulations of bats.
With the new regulation of BBCOR bats (ATC, 2012) , the game of baseball could be in
for a drastic change. This article explained that with the new bats being very similar in the
dimensions and power of wooden bats, BBCOR bats are said to make games closer as they do
not hit as hard as original metal bats. BBCOR bats were made to make the game safer as the
material of the bat dampers the speed and velocity of the ball coming off the bat.(Nicholls, 2005)
The risk of danger with using metal bats in amatuer baseball leagues has led to some officiates
banning all metal bats from play and only allowing wood bats to be used.(Palanzo, 2011) With
companies making metal bats that hit like wood bats, one of the major concerns, other than
safety, is the financial commitment to buy a BBCOR bat versus a wooden bat.
When comparing wood bats to metal and composite bats, there are a few factors to be
taken into consideration: the model of the bat, the type of baseball used when hitting the bats, the
dimensions of the bat, the hitters swing speed, etc.(Shenoy, Smith, Axtell, 2001) Wood is not as
strong as metal so the ball is not going to come off a wood bat harder and farther than it would a
metal bat. In some cases it may, but in a controlled environment and experiment, the comparison
of the two bats werent significantly different but there is an overall difference in the velocity of
the ball coming off each bat.(Russell, 2005)
With the recent technological advances, baseball bats have definitely become more
advanced in their molecular build and durability. (Wilmot, 2006) The population of baseball
players has become increasingly concerned with the safety of one another regarding how much
power a bat can have when the contact of the ball to the bat causes an increase in speed on the
ball. Players have to be careful when around or playing in a baseball game because literally balls
will be flying and there is always a potential injury that could happen after every pitch if
everyone on the field wasnt paying attention. The advancement of materials and prominence of
aluminum bats has increased rapidly since its arrival to the baseball market in the early 1970s.
Aluminum bats have had a significant toll on the game of baseball as well as the economy that is
supported by baseball players. With studies and tests to prove the difference and dominance a
metal bat has compared to a wood bat, it has been shown that the technology inside these bats are

intricate yet durable and can possibly cause a great deal of injury to other players in the field.
(Gonzales, 2010)

Performance Evaluation of Wood and Aluminum Baseball Bats Using Finite Element Analysis.
(n.d.). Retrieved September 12, 2016, from Cain, J. G. (2014). Performance Evaluation of
Wood and Aluminum Baseball Bats Using Finite Element Analysis (Doctoral dissertation,
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute).
http://www.ewp.rpi.edu/hartford/~ernesto/SPR/Cain-FinalReport.pdf
Jones, J. W., Sherwood, J. A., & Drane, P. J. (n.d.). Experimental Investigation of Youth Baseball
Bat Performance. Retrieved September 12, 2016, from
https://wise.uml.edu/docs/ISEA2008_Youth_Bats_tcm18-60860.pdf.
Nicholls, R. L., Miller, K., & Elliott, B. C. (2005, May 4). Numerical analysis of maximal bat
performance in baseball. Journal of Biomechanics, 39(6), 1001-1009.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbiomech.2005.02.020
Shenoy, M. M., Smith, L. V., & Axtell, J. T. (2001, May 2). Performance assessment of wood,
metal and composite baseball bats. Composite Structures, 52(3, 4), 397-404.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0263-8223(01)00030-7
Russell, D. A., PhD. (2005, June 16). What is the COP (Center-of-Percussion) and does it
matter? Physics and Acoustics of Baseball & Softball Bats. Retrieved September 12, 2016,
from http://www.acs.psu.edu/drussell/bats/cop.html
Palanzo, D. A. (2011). Jurimetrics (3rd ed., Vol. 51). Retrieved September 12, 2016, from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/41307132
Swing And A Hitch: New Bats Safer, But Power Wanes [Advertisement]. (2012, February 27).
WFAE.
http://www.npr.org/2012/02/27/147523340/new-baseball-bat-standard-spreads-to-high-school
Crisco, J. J., Greenwald, R. M., Blume, J. D., & Penna, L. H. (2002). Batting performance of
wood and metal baseball bats. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 34(10),
1675-1684.
http://biomed.brown.edu/Medicine_Departments/ORTHOPAEDICS/Baseball/Bat_Perfo
m_MSSE_100102.pdf
Sherwood, J. A., Mustone, T. J., & Fallon, L. P. (2000). Characterizing the performance of
baseball bats using experimental and finite element methods. In 3rd International Conference
on the Engineering of Sport, June, Sydney, Australia.
https://scholar.google.com/scholar?start=10&q=safety+of+baseball+bats&hl=en&as_sdt=1,34
Wilmot, M. R. (2006). Baseball Bats in the High Tech Era: A Products Liability Look at New
Technology, Aluminum Bats, and Manufacturer Liability. Marquette Sports Law Review,
16(2), 353.
https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=74098004649212944&hl=en&as_sdt=1,34
Gonzales, R. (Writer). (2010, April 27). NPR [Radio broadcast]. In Sports. Retrieved
October 17, 2016, from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126312545