Safety in high school, or little league, or college, or anywhere kids play baseball, is a top concern for all of us. But banning aluminum bats won’t reduce the risk of injuries from batted balls, because the speed of the ball leaving today’s aluminum bats is comparable to the speed of a ball off the best wood bat. Accidents are rare in baseball; but they can also happen with wood bats – yet no one says ban wood.

Like baseball itself, the debate about aluminum versus wood has many angles, but safety shouldn’t be one of them. Some players prefer wood because of tradition. Lots of children prefer aluminum because it’s easier to get a hit thanks to the bigger sweet spot found on metal bats. That’s why a ban is so harmful to baseball – it risks driving kids out of the game if it isn’t as much fun.

Unlike wood bats, however, aluminum bats don’t shatter or splinter, which can lead to injury. They don’t sting your hands when you hit on cold days. More than 9 out of 10 amateur players use them because they have a choice and they prefer non-wood. They make the game more fun, which keeps interest in the game high and attracts young people to the sport. And since wood bats break a lot, they end up costing schools and parents more money.

If aluminum bats posed a true safety issue, you’d think those closest to baseball would have banned them years ago. But they haven’t. In fact, American Legion Baseball, National Federation of State High School Associations, American Baseball Coaches Association, Little League, Babe Ruth League and PONY Baseball and Softball ALL OPPOSE a ban on aluminum bats. The Federal government’s Consumer Product Safety Commission, after studying this issue, said that there is “no information, nor is the Commission aware of any, indicating that injuries produced by balls batted with non-wood bats are more severe than those involving wood bats.”

Players and leagues should be free to choose the bat of their choice. If they like wood because of tradition, they should be free to choose wood. If they like aluminum because they prefer the game that way, they should be free to choose aluminum. But politicians shouldn’t be able to tell people how to play the game – especially when both ways are safe.