Got Wood? The Case for Wood Bat Standard in Baseball

There truly is nothing sweeter than the sound of a baseball hitting a bat. The sure sound of the solid wood bat gets a gut reaction out of the crowd no matter in which ballpark the game is being played. But those with a discerning ear will notice that sound is not nearly as frequent in June as it is in July and August. Managers, players, and broadcasters all talk about the adjustment needed by hitters when they arrive in the league from aluminum bats to wood. There is a simple way to fix this transition period often seen in the New England College Baseball League (NECBL): Make wood bats the standard in baseball again.

The use of wood bats in the NCAA has been gone since 1975 when the organization made the official transition to aluminum bats. The majority opinion was that the change would reduce costs for the schools and players. Athletic directors were able to show thousands of dollars being allocated elsewhere if schools did not have to spend the money replacing broken bats every week of the season. But it was easy to see how aluminum changed the game by inflating offensive numbers. Lighter bats allow for both bat speeds to increase and for a change in the physics of hitting a baseball, giving players higher probabilities of deeper fly balls and home runs. While the NCAA still allows the use of wood bats, the majority of players take hold of aluminum or composite bats during the spring.

Aluminum bats today are not the ones that many older baseball players used to swing on ball fields across America.  The advances in technology in the world of aluminum and composite bats have brought drastic changes to college baseball, so much so that in 2011, the NCAA adopted the BBCOR standard with all non-wood bats, effectively requiring them to produce batted ball speeds no greater than their wood counter parts. The BBCOR standard was instituted after not only a major leap in offense in the early 2000s, but an increased concern for infielders, especially pitchers and third basemen, with a risk of injury due to batted ball speeds exceeding 100 MPH.

Youth players want nothing more on the diamond than emulate their favorite players from the pros. This mimicry doesn’t stop with copying a big leaguers routine in the box; they want to swing the wood too. In a pregame interview at Cardines Field with Newport Gulls hitting Coach Al Leyva, the coach explained that he is seeing a lot of younger players taking batting practice with wood bats then playing with the aluminum during games. Leyva added that he has seen a decrease in players having to transition from aluminum to wood over the last ten years and that the popularity of wood bats in youth leagues are part of that reason.

In an ideal world, there would be a complete change in all levels of baseball, starting when youth players step onto a regulation diamond. It doesn’t matter if it is the Babe Ruth League, Senior League or other youth baseball programs: once play begins on the 90 foot diamond, they should be swinging lumber. If the two major youth baseball organizations do not want to make the switch (and wooden bats are not the biggest issue plaguing Little League Baseball, but that’s another story), then at the very least, the National Federation of State High School Association (NFHS) should switch to a wood bat standard. The standard would be simple: at all levels nationwide, when a high school athlete starts playing competitively for their school, all bats are wood.

Working in the Massachusetts Baseball Umpires Association (MBUA), I have seen many divisions in the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) hold a rule of wood bat only. It has been my experience that leagues that are exclusive to wood bats are the more competitive and mechanically sound leagues in the game of baseball. I am not saying that errors, blowouts, and bad teams do not exist in these leagues; Instead, what I am saying is that there is a higher level of intensity, the offensive gap is much smaller, and the level of play on the field is higher because it simply has to be. When a player swings wood, they are forced to fix bad habits, or they find themselves riding the bench. The difference at the plate is so great that often times, the statistically worst player on a wood bat team is a good to superior player when given an aluminum bat.

Finally it is the goal of every collegiate baseball player to make it to “The Show”. A tell-tale sign of when a scout is at a college game is when players who have been using aluminum bats their entire season all of a sudden come to the dish with a wood bat. Why? Because wood is the standard in Major League Baseball and the scouts want to see if a player has a natural swing with a wooden bat or if those roaring doubles are aluminum enhanced.

The idea of seeing baseball across America played as it once was is a dream, I know. But if in all the leagues, (youth, high school, and college), the aspiration is to play in a mirrored fashion as the pros, then what is the harm? I am of the opinion that there would be a drastic improvement in the development of players and thus the overall improvement of the game.. Maybe it’s just me, and maybe I still have the dream like that of a corn farmer in Iowa but baseball is a simple game, with a white and red stitched ball and a wood bat. It’s simplicity over science and it’s what makes baseball beautiful.

Mourning for McCoy

View from the Grandstands of McCoy Stadium on a summer night

It’s Opening Day for the Pawtucket Red Sox and Division Street is teamed with cars backed up for nearly a mile leading to McCoy Stadium. I walked the same path that I have for as long as I can remember. My girlfriend Megan and I walk across Division Street and down Kepler Street. We take a quick left down Meadow Street and an immediate right onto North Bend Street. The ballpark in sight we walk down Ben Mondor Way, the service road leading to McCoy Stadium, aptly named for the late owner of the Pawtucket Red Sox. There before us stands McCoy Stadium with thousands of fans buying tickets, taking pictures and entering this most historic ballpark.

The Pawtucket Red Sox have called McCoy Stadium their home for 45 years ever since the Boston Red Sox moved their minor league franchise from Pittsfield, MA. The first six seasons didn’t seem like they were going to be successful for the city of Pawtucket and the Boston Red Sox minor league team. Then, Ben Mondor, a retired businessman, made a purchase in the best spirit of the game of baseball. Mondor and team President Mike Tamburro worked together to build a team and stadium with which the city fell in love. In 1998, Mondor ordered the complete restoration of McCoy Stadium. A relic of the Great Depression and a WPA project commissioned in 1938, McCoy was a cold concrete building that was falling apart and hardly suitable for a Triple-A team, despite its “big sister” ballpark being Fenway Park. The renovations to McCoy brought the International League All-Star Game in 2004. The Pawtucket Red Sox led the league in attendance for much of the early 2000s and McCoy grew to be considered one of the jewels of minor league baseball.

The beauty of McCoy Stadium is twofold. First is Ben Mondor’s dream of baseball. Mondor was first and foremost a fan of the game of baseball. It was a sport that he loved and wanted to share with the local community. That is why since their inception McCoy Stadium has been an affordable night out for the family. For less than $10 a ticket, fans young and old can come out and see professional baseball every summer night. Pawtucket was and is a working class city and Mondor felt baseball should not be considered an activity for the privileged few. For nearly 50 years, the City of Pawtucket has seen future greats like Fred Lynn, Jim Rice, Carlton Fisk, Trot Nixon, Jason Varitek, and Dustin Pedroia have graced the little jewel in Pawtucket.

For those who are unaware, on Easter Weekend in 1981 baseball history began at McCoy. It was April 18, 1981 when the Pawtucket Red Sox locked horns with the Rochester Red Wings. At 4:07 am on April 19^th the game was not yet over but league officials finally gave permission for the two exhausted teams to suspend the game after 32 complete innings. The game was national news that got a relatively new sports network called ESPN to venture to Pawtucket and cover the 33^rd and final inning. On June 23, after 18 more minutes of play, the Pawtucket Red Sox walked off with a victory over Rochester completing the 33 inning spectacular. The game took a total of 8 hours and 25 minutes and is enshrined forever in both the Boston Red Sox and National Baseball Hall of Fame.

McCoy Stadium is more than just a home to baseball history - It is also home to the residents of Pawtucket. McCoy Stadium has been home to the Tolman Tigers, the city’s east side high school, for both football and baseball. Every Thanksgiving since the Stadium opened in 1942, McCoy has lit up for football. It was the home of one of Rhode Island’s longest football rivalry games between the Saint Raphael Academy “Saints” and the Tolman “Tigers.” Decades of Tiger and Saint Alumni recall close games, blow out games, and motorcade parades leading gridiron warriors to battle. Tolman and Saint Raphael’s ended their 86 year tradition in 2003 but McCoy Stadium remains home to high school football. It now plays host to both schools’ respective Thanksgiving Day games (Tolman vs. Shea and SRA vs. Moses Brown). While football in the outfield of McCoy is an autumn treat to the City and its youth players, McCoy is primarily home to America’s pastime. Tolman High School Varsity baseball has called McCoy Stadium home for decades, allowing high school players a chance to play on a professional ball field. Some of those high school players went on to play in other minor league fields continuing their career as baseball players, but for countless others, the chance to grace McCoy Stadium in uniform playing the game they loved was a highlight of their career.

For this lifelong Pawtucket resident, McCoy Stadium was the launching point for many things in my life. I spent countless summer nights with my windows open hearing Jim Martin, PA Announcer for the Pawtucket Red Sox, echo down the street. That is home run number 10 for Mo Vaughn… Right Fielder, number 7, Trot Nixon… now pitching for the Pawtucket Red Sox Derek Lowe. Before its renovations in 1998, I used to practice on the fields behind the outfield walls of McCoy. Most times I would watch the afternoon games from a hole in the right field wall under the original scoreboard.

I fell in love with baseball because of McCoy. Sure, the Boston Red Sox are my team, but Fenway is an hour from home, and McCoy is down the block. If I wasn’t playing behind the stadium I was going to games with my family or friends. For years I spent my summer nights listening to the PawSox on the radio while helping my grandfather run a parking lot for fans going to McCoy for the game. And who can forget every July 3^rd as the skies of Pawtucket light up after the game and the fireworks celebrating the birth of our country. I watch with my family from my front yard the spectacle coming from McCoy Stadium.

I was in Maine when I learned that the Pawtucket Red Sox were sold by Ben Mondor’s widow. Reading that the new owners were moving the team out of Pawtucket and McCoy was gut wrenching. The new owners don’t understand what Ben Mondor’s dream and McCoy Stadium means to Pawtucket and their residents. The city has changed so much since 1942 and through it all there has been baseball. The mills have closed and downtown saw retail stores leave, but the people in Pawtucket had baseball. With the team moving out many residents wonder what will become of Pawtucket. The team and that Stadium are like a family member that we are fighting to keep at home with us.

Sadly, I am coming to terms with the idea that April 16, 2015 may have been the final Opening Night for the Pawtucket Red Sox. Megan and I sat in the red box seats on the third base side. I reminisced about McCoy over a sausage and pepper grinder and flat beer, a meal in itself that is a McCoy tradition. The PawSox walked off with a 9^th inning homerun and the sellout crowd cheered. We walked down the original tower exit past the murals of PawSox heroes. I thought what I would want to happen if McCoy Stadium’s lights were to go dark for good. Ben Mondor wanted baseball to be accessible for the youth of Pawtucket. In place of McCoy, I would like to see Ben Mondor Athletic Complex. The complex would be a collection of football, soccer and baseball fields that would encompass the entire property on Division Street and Columbus Ave with Mondor’s statue and a plaque at the main entrance. In my head I see the plaque in the shape of home plate.

Here stood McCoy Stadium home to the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Longest Game in Baseball History.

“It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart.” These are the words of former Major League Baseball Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti’s award winning essay Green Fields of the Mind. I have had my heart broken by baseball in my 30 years of being a fan. Whether it was Aaron Boone’s homerun in the 2003 American League Championship Series or the loss by the Plymouth Pilgrims in the 2014 NECBL Southern Division Championship Series, I have spent a lifetime being hurt by baseball only to return to it again in April. Unfortunately, this time it isn’t because of a late inning homerun in the playoffs; it is instead because the new owners of the franchise that I consider family doesn't see how special their new “toy” is to people like me. Moneyball has broken my heart and stolen baseball from my home. And that is a heartache that will not be healed next April, or ever.