This week, while on vacation in Cape Cod, I have had the luxury of getting to see numerous Cape Cod League baseball games. The Cape Cod League is an elite summer league for some of the best collegiate players in the country. Getting a chance to watch the Bourne Braves the other night, however, brought me to a disturbing revelation, that college baseball may be hurting American baseball players in the long term.
One of the most widely praised aspect of Cape Cod League ball is that they play with wooden bats, instead of the aluminum bats that are solely used in the NCAA conferences. But does this put them at a disadvantage?
Many American players get used to the aluminum bats for years, often including high school, and then have to go into the minor leagues and acclimate themselves to using wooden bats. This year in the Cape Cod League there are only 11 players with batting averages over .300, and only 6 with averages over .310. Seven of the 11 players with averages over .300 have lower batting averages then their most recent college season.
A regression analysis could show that part of this drop in batting averages is due to the use of wooden bats as opposed to the aluminum bats. And a deeper look at more complex numbers may show the same thing. The question becomes, how long does it take to become fully accustomed to the use of wooden bats?
I would be wary, as the United States has failed to place higher than fourth in first two World Baseball Classics and has only one gold and two bronze medals to show for their efforts in the Olympics since it became a medal sport in 1992, that American baseball players are lagging behind the rest of the world. As we try to reclaim dominance in our “National Pastime” colleges and even high schools may want to look to the use of wooden bats to offer players as many advantages as possible and ensure that the list of past Cape Cod League stars reads like a “Who’s Who” in baseball.
thebullpenblogger 