Unless you’re watching professional baseball or one of the several NCAA sanctioned summer wooden bat leagues, like the New England Collegiate Baseball League, chances are when you watch a baseball game from tee-ball through college the players are using metal bats.
Back in March the New York City Council voted 40-6 to ban metal bats for city high school games. It’s a law that supporters say will make the game safer for the city’s high school athletes.
In May the bill’s opponents filed a lawsuit fighting the ban.
A lawsuit against New York City was filed by USA Baseball, a Raleigh, N.C.-based national governing body for several baseball associations, and The National High School Baseball Coaches Association, based in Tempe, Ariz., along with four sporting goods companies and several fathers of ballplayers.
In April New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg vetoed the bat ban but it was overwhelmingly overturned by the city council.
Today a judge ruled that it was constitutional for the city to ban the metal bats. U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl said the new law fits the purpose of legislative bodies like the City Council to protect the public health and safety.
The ban was instituted because of claims that today’s metal bats make the ball travel farther and faster thus increasing the chance of injuries to players.
Opponents, including Little League Baseball and sporting goods makers, say there is no scientific evidence proving metal bats pose more of a risk than wooden bats. An American Legion Baseball study in 2005 found no substantial scientific proof that wooden bats are safer than metal bats.
