Sluggers Breaking Bats, Not Records

Major League Baseball's newly formed Safety and Health Advisory Committee is investigating the issue. One area of inquiry will focus on whether more bats are breaking because of the trend toward thinner handles and wider barrels.

Colorado Rockies' Todd Helton breaks his bat for a base hit as Los Angeles Dodgers relief pitcher Cory Wade follows through during the seventh inning of their game, April 25, 2008, in Los Angeles.

(AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
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Defenders of maple argue that an outright ban on maple bats is unnecessary. Canadian batmaker Sam Holman, who helped popularize maple bats when he began making them for Barry Bonds, said he believes the problem may be inferior maple bats from manufacturers who have not completely removed the moisture from the wood.

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Until the committee has its answers, Holman believes baseball needs to borrow a page from hockey's playbook: "You need to separate the field of play from the fans."

The National Hockey League extended safety netting and protective glass after a 13-year-old Ohio girl was killed by a hockey puck in 2002. That kind of protection is exactly what Rhodes said she would like to see in every stadium.

"It makes me angry that they're not doing anything, at least temporarily, even if it's the netting, to make it safer for some people," she said.

Major League Baseball has yet to enact any new safety measures. To observers like Bill Shaiken of the Los Angeles Times, the sport is playing with fire. "If somebody gets killed, God forbid, in the stands tomorrow, no one's going to want to hear about the study that's going on."