"I'm not saying kids aren't getting hurt but the number doesn't jump out at you, and this is something we take very seriously at the OBA." "We don't have a ton of claims," Humphries says. Humphries, who handles insurance claims for the Ontario Baseball Association (OBA), says he knows of no deaths related to aluminum bats in Canada, where 60,000 players use them. The type of bat was not known in the other seven cases. Eight of the deaths involved aluminum bats. Consumer Safety Commission, 17 players were killed by batted balls between 19. While many baseball officials in the province acknowledge that the bats have played a role in some injuries, even deaths, they say incidents are rare.Īccording to the U.S. In most of Ontario, the use of aluminum bats is cut off after bantam (ages 14 and 15). The NCAA, National High School Federation, Pony League and others did their own studies and came to the same conclusion as Little League. Little League, which has 2.3 million players in 7,500 leagues worldwide, refused to follow New York's initiative, citing a 2002 study by the National Consumer Product Safety Commission that found little evidence to support it. Pennsylvania is also considering a ban for youth play. 1 at the high school level, while six towns in New Jersey outlawed them for certain age groups. The ball travels faster off a metal bat than off a wooden one, up to 160 kilometres an hour in the hands of an elite-level adult hitter.Īfter several serious incidents last summer, the state government in New York legislated a ban on the bats starting Sept.
The issue is known as the "trampoline effect," says Bob Humphries, who heads the Ontario Baseball Association's risk management department. Similar incidents have put aluminum bats in the crosshairs of North American baseball officials and government legislators who fear it has become a lethal weapon. Green was struck by a regulation ball off the barrel of an aluminum bat. "I was scared at first and I didn't want to pitch any more, but I tried it again and it was okay."
"I threw the ball and it just backfired at me," Green, now 13, says about the incident that happened last summer at a tournament in Brantford.
All he knew was that he had been hit harder than he'd ever been hit before. There was a swing, then a line drive back to the mound. The 12-year-old pitcher for the North York Blues had just finished his delivery. Demoi Green had less than a second to see the baseball before it slammed into his shin and knocked him to the ground.
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