Some things to consider about maple bats before screaming for a ban:
Are there enough non-maple bats available to get through the major-league season? (The answer seems to be no, but given that information, five seconds later ESPN's Steve Phillips said he'd ban them right now.)
Maple bats have been in the bigs for several years. Why the panic this year? What has changed?
The sport's goriest bat incident was more than 30 years ago, well before maple arrived on the scene.
Baseball leaders and the media like to lay this at the feet of the players union, but what about the minors, where baseball has total control? Where is the ban there?
Banning is not the only solution. Can there not be some sort of engineering done on bats to keep them in one piece? Are we married to wood? I'm not suggesting aluminum, heavens no, but there are all sorts of materials out there. Carbon fiber?
Consider the business aspects, namely the manufacturers, though one hasn't exactly helped his cause by suggesting that price fixing would clear up things.
Is safety the No. 1 concern? How many pitchers have been hit in the head with batted balls this season?
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