There had been rumblings of college teams switching to wood bats, but that won’t be happening if the coaches have their way.
The survey asked the 24 head coaches of teams that had won more than 1,000 games since 1985, of the coaches polled, 17 said they prefer aluminum bats and see no need to look into using wood bats.
5 coaches said they prefered wood, one coach had no opinion and Arizona State’s Tim Esmay didn’t participate because his team is preparing for the College World Series. The 5 who prefered wood acknowledge that aluminum bats where probably here to stay.
Backers of aluminum bats point to the equality of bats across the landscape, the lowest teams are playing with the same bats the best teams have, so there is no unlevel playing field. The bats also last longer, a $350 aluminum bat will last all season while a $100 wood bat can break any time.
D-II baseball is considering moving to wood bats by 2012 in an attempt to speed up games that stretch out with the increased offense aluminum bats provide.
