Korpi’s near-death experience is one of many instances when a non-wood baseball bat might have put a young pitcher in peril. While college baseball programs such as MSU continue to use non-wood bats, some critics say if Korpi had heard a “crack” instead of a “ping,” things might have been different.

Man on a mission

Because of incidents like Korpi’s, New York City Councilman James Oddo has made it his mission to safeguard youth in amateur baseball and spearheaded a campaign outlawing non-wood bats in New York City.

“We take risks when we play sports, but we take reasonable risks,” Oddo said. “When we take unreasonable risks, somebody has to do something. The risks posed by metal bats are unreasonable.”

Oddo remembers when aluminum bats first came on the scene in the 1970s. They were built and used for their endurance, he said. Since then, things have changed.

“The aluminum bats that I played with as a 9-year-old in 1976 aren’t the bats today,” he said.

“(Bats today are) high-tech and built for performance, not endurance. And in some instances, they hit balls back at pitchers that literally have no time to protect themselves.”

Since the game has evolved, bat companies have changed the ways of producing what they sell. In 1993, Worth Sports and Easton Sports first introduced titanium baseball bats. In 1995, Easton and Louisville Slugger upped the ante.

Today, bat makers have made enough adaptations in the college and high school game to ensure safety, said Mark Uhl, assistant director of the Michigan High School Athletic Association.

Since 2001, bat companies have followed a new standard — the ball exit speed ratio, or BESR, formula — set in place to mimic the velocity at which a ball would travel off a wood bat.

“Common sense would say with a wood bat, the ball doesn’t come off nearly as fast or nearly as hard,” Uhl said.

“With BESR, the speed the ball comes off a bat that meets the specification is supposed to be much like a ball coming off a wood bat. You see major league guys getting hit with balls coming off the bat. There just really isn’t any research or data that points to, ‘If we go to wood bats, there wouldn’t be any kids injured.’”

Because of BESR standards, the barrel of baseball bats have been regulated from 2 3/4 of an inch to 2 5/8 and the weight of the bat in ounces may only be three less than the length in inches.

A push back

Uhl said incidents similar to Korpi’s prompt politicians such as Oddo to reform the game. Oddo spent years in New York listening to the stories of parents and testimonies of people who loved baseball and wanted to protect their children.

It began when a mother came into his office and told him about her son who took a lacrosse ball to the chest in a game, dropped to the ground and died on the field.

He received another call. This time, it was from a baseball fanatic who presented Oddo with a tape from a FOX Sports show, “Going Deep.” The introduction was footage of college pitchers being struck with line drives on the mound.

“It just resonated with me,” Oddo said.

From that point, the councilman began working with some of the leading opponents of metal bats and people who have been around the game for generations. The resulting ban was one that left coaches, players and the bat industry fuming.

“I never anticipated I would get the push back,” Oddo said. “I never knew at the time the power of the metal bat industry. It became true that the purists would want to go back to wood, that they did see an increase in offense and increase of line drive, but it was also clear there were not going to unilaterally disarm.”

Oddo originally put together a bill aimed at high school and little league baseball. Despite hours of testimony on his side, including from Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the bill went nowhere. Then, in 2007, after more injuries, Oddo reformed the bill to target only high schools and sent it back to the council.

Bat manufacturers and USA Baseball said the law came without any reasoning and filed a lawsuit when the City Council voted in favor of Oddo’s bill.

“The judge upheld the City Council’s right to ban the product,” said Jim Darby, vice president of promotions at Easton Sports. “There was no evidence to say this was a safety issue. … You have a city councilman who wanted to get this passed. It was a political deal — it had nothing to do with safety.”

Darby said the only injury in New York City last year was a high school pitcher who was hit by a line drive in the head and spent four days in the hospital bleeding from the brain. The hit was off a wood bat.

Part of the game

In March 2007, Oddo’s group and the City Council eventually overcame a veto from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and opposition from Little League Baseball, USA Baseball and hundreds of lobbyists.

The new law “would prohibit any person from using non-wood bats in competitive games in which minors are participants and which take place in connection with a league operating in New York City.”

It wasn’t news to bat manufacturers that metal bats could be potentially dangerous, Darby said. For that reason, the NCAA and the National Federation of State High School Associations keep tabs on the issue and would make changes as they saw fit.

“The NCAA has a bat-testing program in place for non-wood bats that we feel has created a safe and fair game for all involved,” said Jennifer Kearns, associate director of public and media relations for the NCAA.

“We have been doing this testing since 2000, and we believe it has ensured that the balance between offense and defense in the game of college baseball has been appropriately maintained for that entire time. We are constantly monitoring our standards with a panel of scientific experts in the area.”

Many people opposed the New York law because of the monitoring that already takes place, arguing that risk is part of the game. As Darby said, the basis for the change is on a rare anecdote rather than substantial evidence.

He said, she said

A change from metal to wood at the higher levels could serve other purposes as well.

Take 19-year-old Kevin Ahrens, a blue-chip prospect in the Toronto Blue Jays farm system who had to make a quick transition from metal to wood bats when he made the jump from high school to professional baseball.

“It was a big transition because you’ve got to hit the ball good or you’re going to break the bat,” Ahrens said.

“I’ve heard stories about the metal bats and the danger. The ball definitely comes at you harder. I would like to see them change to wood bats, especially the college guys because they just jump right into pro ball. If you’re going to play at the next level, you should get used to it starting at a younger age.”

Oddo saw the bat manufacturers as a “metal bat cartel” willing to sacrifice injuries and even death for a quick buck for a short-term purchase.

“I refused to have even one kid in New York City be severely injured or die because these guys want to continue selling metal bats,” he said. “They don’t make money on the shitty metal bats, and they don’t make money on wood bats. They make the bulk of their profits on the high end.”

For former MSU baseball coach David Grewe, the dangers a pitcher faces on the mound are “part of the game.” And those partnerships that universities forge with bat manufacturers are too valuable to lose over a debate that isn’t so cut-and-dry. As Grewe put it, there’s “too much big business.”

“You look at Baseball America (magazine) and on the cover of it Rawlings (Sporting Goods) has had their sponsored schools and we’re one of five in the country,” Grewe said.

“(MSU’s) logo is right there, so everyone who gets that sees Michigan State with Virginia, Georgia Tech, Tulane and Kent State.

“In order for us to use their gloves and equipment, we have to use their bats. It’s a win-win for both and I don’t see it changing. I hope it doesn’t change because it’s too valuable for everybody, the system that’s in place.”

The debate becomes a matter of “he said, she said” with a politician getting the final say. While the bat manufacturers continue to tweak their product and the powerful individuals continue to regulate their sports, all would agree that safety comes first.

“I do worry about my baseball players,” said Rich Kimball, Lansing Catholic Central High’s athletic director, who has been a sports administrator for 12 years.

“I’ve seen one injury when a baseball player got hit. He was on his follow-through and he took one off the cheek bone. It was one injury too many, but it’s not like it happens every day.”

Uhl just goes back to the data. Or, as he said, the lack thereof. Because of the likelihood of wood bats cracking or breaking, Uhl said it’s more economical for a coach to buy a handful of metal bats to last at least one season.

“With more data to say if we go to wood, ‘By gosh, wood is without a doubt safer,’ I think there’d be more of a push to make a change,” he said. “Without data, there just isn’t a push to move to wood bats.”

A single story

Oddo, who has positioned himself as one of the largest proponents in the world for banning non-wood bats in the amateur game, said he doesn’t need data to convince him of the way the game should be played.

One story — Wade Korpi’s — was enough.

After getting hit, Korpi was taken to the hospital with a golf-ball sized bump near his temple that eventually grew to the size of the baseball. The ball could have killed him had it been a fraction of an inch in another direction, but Korpi was treated without serious injuries.

A week later, he took the mound again and pitched to his fifth win of the season.

“By the grace of God, Wade is walking today,” Oddo said. “I’ve met families of kids who are less fortunate.”

The ban on metal bats in New York could be a lesson to the country that baseball can now be played how it was originally intended.

“The game was built around a stick of wood and it got perverted,” he said.

“Kids are adapting, kids are enjoying it. Kids and coaches and parents are all saying baseball is back. I had a coach tell me that the era of boys’ softball is over and boys’ baseball is back. It’s a better game, it’s a purer game and it’s a safer game.”