Broken Bats

I've been watching the Cardinals-Mets game on FSN, and now it's in a rain delay so I'm watching Red Sox-Rays game on ESPN. In the span of 10 minutes, I've heard the same story and semi-soapbox moment on both stations, regarding players doctoring bats and how that is making the whole "dangerous broken bat" issue worse than it should be. Granted, the maple bats to just have a tendency to just snap off rather than shatter (like the typical ash bat), players are shaving the handles down on the ash bats to help generate more bat speeds (it's legal to do that) and as a result it's making the bats break off more. Here is a paraphrased version of the similar statements...

- Dan McLoughlin (Cardinals play by play for FSN Midwest) After David Wright hit a ball off the end of the bat and it split in two a la Roy Hobbs in 'The Natural'

"Players are shaving the handles down to get the ratio of bat weight heavier towards the barrel, so they can get more bat speed, and that makes the bats very unstable. You'll seem them shatter every time you hit it wrong."

- Orel Hershiser (Color man for ESPN) After Johnny Gomes shattered a bat and the pieces sprayed all over the infield.

"Players keep shaving these handles down to generate more bat speed. They grow up using metal bats that are constructed that way, so they try to tailor their wooden bats that way and it just doesn't work. Plus, they heat these bats up and it causes them to lose all their moisture content and become hard but brittle."

Anyway, I don't really have a good input on what needs to be done, but with the new stadiums being built so fan-friendly (the fans can sit usually 45 feet behind the plate and within 50 feet of the infield), fans have little time to react when a heavy, jagged piece of wood comes flying in their direction. In last night's Cards-Mets game, Carlos Delgado had a bat snap off and only a snap reaction from a guy in the stands kept the bat from hitting a couple kids sitting in the fourth row. Hopefully something will get figured out soon.