Depends upon the ratio of Metal to Wood bats used over all. If there's a 14 to 3 ratio of Metal to Wood bats used by all players, the stat is meaningless.

Actually, the ratio of "power" hitters using Metal to Wood would be the most important stat, as some of us never hit a whole lot of homeruns.

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Of course they're more likely to kill people than wood bats. There are roughly 750 MLB players that use wooden bats. Add to that, another couple thousand minor league players, and you have less than 3,000 wooden bats being used.
Compare that to millions of little league, high school and college players that use aluminum bats. Discounting the skill levels reached by professional players, the odds are about a thousand times greater for a player to be killed by a ball batted off a metal bat.[quote]



Apparently, if only 5 times more people are killed by aluminum bats, they are a couple hundred times safer than wood.

Currently our society treats responsibility like a disease.

Everything is always someone elses fault.

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Kids get killed in every sport, except perhaps badminton. However if they designed new rackets that people started using that started killing people, shoudl they keep using the new rackets?

I'll agree with that 100%...

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If it wasn't for double standards, liberals would have no standards at all...

A 200 mph rubber ball with feathers would leave a mark, but I doubt it would cause death.

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Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. ---P. J. O'Rourke

The funny part is these fucking tools are always bitching about how fat kids are but then turn around and point fingers at athletics as being dangerous.

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Yep. Every "Happy Meal" needs a warning label.

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Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. ---P. J. O'Rourke

After reading every post in this thread, I realize what a horrible mother I am. My son has 2 footballs, one leather, one pleather. I shouldn't be on here reading silly posts, I should be researching the difference in safety between a leather football and a pleather one. My son is nine. Should he happen to be outside playing football with his friends I want to be sure that he isn't playing with a more "dangerous" football. (anyone have any stats on which football is safer?)

What about his bike. He has a Haro that is really a lightweight bike. I should be researching to find out if lightweight bikes are more dangerous that regular bikes. I mean, when he goes up to the bike path and is doing jumps (and whatever else it is he does on that thing) I need to know that if he happens to fall off his bike, what bike is the safest bike to fall off of.

What should I do when he is outside playing with his friends? I mean, ugh... they are boys. They do silly stuff like play tackle football WITH NO PROTECTIVE GEAR. They aren't suiting up before playing football. AND THEY TACKLE EACH OTHER!!!

What to do, what to do.

Maybe I should get off here and just throw all of his toys away. Maybe I should go out and get him some Barbie's or something. Oh.... wait.... he might chew on them and choke.

Guess there is only one thing to do. Clear out his room and let him have nothing. When he does leave the house (only with my direct supervision) I better wrap him in bubble wrap to make sure that he doesn't get hurt.

Never mind. I am not a stupid liberal. I know that 9 year old boys are half retarded and get hurt. (does this mean that I can't sue the batting cage for my son getting hit by a ball from their machine? I mean... I know it was his fault because he wasn't paying attention.... but momma needs a new car)

Threads like this make me understand why things are the way they are in our country. People are fucking retarded and always looking for someone to blame... hey... and they make bank for doing it.

Well in this specific case. However in the hypothetical situation everyone is jumping on with ratios, maybe I should have elaborated that it should be on a 1 to 1 ratio as far as use, so with 10,000 vs 10,000 metal to wood bats, if the metal ones were found to be 15 times deadlier...... Since I personally do not know the specific number of metal vs wooden bats and didn't know the metal ones were that much more popular.

You can "if" this issue into the ground, and it will accomplish nothing. "If" wood bats were more likely to burst into flames when a batter swings it, we should probably ban those, too.

Using "if" is seldom constructive...

They are.

Around here (southern California), aluminum bats can be found on every Little League, high school, and college baseball field. You would be hard-pressed to find a wood bat used during a game.

Surely, if it was so clearly obvious that aluminum bats were that much more dangerous than wood bats, we would be hearing stories of being killed far more often. But think about the story in the OP: Prior to this incident, when was the last time you heard of someone being killed by a ball coming off an aluminum bat?

Statistically, it's pretty much non-existant...

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For those who have fought to defend it, freedom has a taste the protected will never know...



If it wasn't for double standards, liberals would have no standards at all...

Lol. Most won't believe it, but I agree with you.

We do need more common sense all the way around, from the consumers using the products to the corporations making them. In this specific case, the numbers don't support that this product was any more dangerous than another, and moral of the story is that the kid died from playing baseball. Tragic but the numbers don't support that the company willfully did anything that could counted as dangerous.

So my initial stance that this could be used in a negative way for TORT reform is tragic as well, still stands. While reform is what it is called, they are pushing to not allow any type of legal compensation for any corporate wrongdoing.

+1....................

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I wouldnt feel any different. A manufacturer is not liable for accidents.

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-Thomas Jefferson

Yes BUT what makes people think the manufacturer is?

There is something fucked up in their psyche that makes them believe its not their fault its the manufacturers fault despite the fact that it is their own fault.

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