NCAA baseball bat safety regulation

The regulatory response to aluminum-bat performance escalation; stiffest requirements to limit ball exit velocity.

The NCAA has actually got some of the stiffest requirements so that you don't have people hitting lots of home runs, but you have a safe system where the balls are not coming off so fast that people can't respond. That's the safety issue. There have been cases where pitchers have been blinded because the ball came off so fast, hit them in the eye, and they couldn't react. People have done studies of these things, and it's still very controversial because it's sports. Some people want to have the best performance and some people are worried about safety. It's just a big debate, okay.

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Brief mention — NCAA "has been talking about" restrictions; Japan limits college bats to ~minus-8; Little League has resisted on grounds of player strength. ## Figures referenced (framing statistics, not cases)

Many of the associations — the Japanese started in their colleges, and they said you can't have more than, I think, a minus-eight bat in Japan in college. The NCAA has been talking about restrictions. Little League said our kids aren't strong enough to do anything. People may have gotten to the point now where minus 10 is about the most anybody can make. But they're still going to the best aluminum alloys. Get on the web — it will give you the history of the last 30 years of how Alcoa has been developing the highest-strength aluminum alloys for bats, not for aircraft. Because, let's face it: 19 ounces, 130 bucks — that's $100 a pound, folks. Someone's making a profit off this. Pretty good markup. So now you know what the highest-tech aluminum product is.