Coach-n-Dad
Crazy Daddy
- Oct 31, 2008
- 1,008
- 0
So, then with what you are saying, once you hit a few balls with the bat, it should be illegal also. Rolling a bat does not alter the bat anymore that batting practice or hitting in games does. It just gets it broke in sooner. The only way to eliminate this all together is get rid of composite bats. Since ASA does have a rule saying rolling is illegal, then it is. I or many others may not agree with it, since it does no more than hitting a ball with the bat. There will be bad hops with any bat used where players could get injured. If a bat is rolled right, there would be no way at all to tell if it was rolled or just broke in by hitting balls. I read the link someone else posted and it says to looked for surface cracks, well you may get those from putting it in a vice, but unless you really crank it tight, you wont see anything like that from rolling it. If you are anxious to sue someone because your child got nailed with a ball, then you will do it no matter what bat was used. It is part of the danger of playing a sport. There may be a higher rebound speed off a compostite bat than an aluminum bat, but as I said multiple times, it wont be any faster from being rolled than hitting a bunch of balls with the bat. If you roll it right out of the wrapper, then yes, it will have a higher rebound rate right away. The only "edge" rolling gives, is that you dont have to wait for the bat to get broke in, it is right away.
I am not in any way advocating anyone go out of their way to physically change a bat, such as in shaving, etc to make it perform unaturally. I also dont want to see anyone get hurt playing in any sports. However, it will happen, no matter what you do. As far as composite bats go, rolling them or breaking them in by hitting balls does the same and the bat will perform the same, and in my opinion, the only way to get rid of the injury threat because of high rebound speed, is get rid of the composite bats all together. I would lose no sleep using a rolled bat, since I know it is no different than a broke in bat. I however would feel guilty using one that was shaved or otherwise physically altered to perform unnaturally. A rolled bat is not magic, it still takes alot of work and talent to hit the ball well. If you cant do that, no bat will help.
Rob
AND - if my DD/pitcher gets injured by use of YOUR rolled bat, be prepared to deal with MY lawyer.
'Nuff said