By Richard Gaines
Staff Writer
August 25, 2008 10:39 pm The use of metal and composition bats in games of the Cape Ann Industrial Softball League, played at Burham's Field, have been banned by the city, beginning next season, because they propel balls too far. The action was taken by Mark Cole, the director of parks, earlier this month to protect public safety from rocket shots off what are suspected to be doctored or "juiced" bats swung that are landing in the yards of neighbors of the downtown field. "They're taking $6-7-800 bats to be doctored out of town," Ken Sarofeen, a longtime league umpire alleged on June 30 at a meeting of the City Council's Ordinance and Administration Committee. "It's getting out of control." "It's only Burnham's Field," Ward 2 Councilor John "Gus" Foote said. The scourge of juiced bats is a national problem, according to the Amateur Softball Association of America in Oklahoma City, the governing body of a game that has spread worldwide like wildfire, is featured on ESPN and was featured in the Beijing Olympics. Its growth at the industrial league level involves a macho arms race as bat makers innovate new ways to add punch to the propellants, and with and without the ASA's certification, bring to market ever more power and appeal in new models such as the Akadema Catapult Hybrid, the Anderson Techzilla and the Composite Killer, to name but a few. These and all stock bats are subject to further improvement in illegal laboratories. "We expect the cottage industry of bat doctoring to continue," the ASA's equipment testing and certification committee wrote to members, announcing a lawsuit against five individuals on the heels of a "last round of lawsuits" that resulted in a $100,000 judgment. The league that plays at Burnham's Field and other city facilities — the league fielded nine teams this year — is not a member of the ASA, so is not required to use bonafide, tested bats. ASA spokesman Kelly McKeown, echoing the complaints of Major League Baseball, told the Times the struggle against advancing technological capabilities to enhance the performance of the tools or toys of the game is endless. McKeown said the composition of the bats, some all metal and others a mix of nonmetallic compounds frozen into shape with hard flexible glues that can be modified and then refinished with the original markings and labels that make them almost impossible for the eye to catch. Many of the "juicers" introduce titanium into aluminum bats. Titanium is a lightweight metal, with an ideal combination of strength and flexibility to earn its present buzz word status in golf clubs and tennis rackets and has been a controversial, banned and fought over, component in softball bats and leagues worldwide. The requirement of wood bats next year in games at Burnham's Field came in the form of a letter to the league commissioner, Bob Brazier, amid a season of complaints by residents of homes on Allen and Liberty Streets just beyond the left field hurricane fence and screening. In his paper, "Physics and Acoustics of Baseball and Softball Bats," Kettering University Professor Daniel A. Russell writes that "the phenomenally improved trampoline effect" from titanium bats meant players were "hitting balls upwards of 10 miles per hour faster" and "about 40-50 feet farther." At Burnham's Field, it means home runs off the aluminum stock models, which traveled the 300 feet or so from home plate to the windows, back patio and walls of the Pimentals' home just beyond the 18-foot high combination of hurricane fence and netting, now will be able to travel over their roof to pelt the next home up the street, where John and Aria McEllehey, their toddler and infant, live in fear of flying objects. In complaining and gathering hundreds of signatures on a petition to the council requesting the city not allow continued use of metal bats, McEllenney said he did not want to seem a spoil sport. "I love the games," he said. The McElhenneys showed Foote's committee a laundry basket of softballs that were delivered into their possession by titanic swats of aluminum and perhaps titanium bats this season. Aria McElhenney told the Times their collection grew by about two balls a game over the course of the season. They said the most recent arrived during the championship games last Sunday. A ball was propelled over the entire field, then over the Pimentals' home and smashed against a kitchen window behind which John McElhenney was holding the four-month-old Ruby. He said he considered both of them lucky that the ball struck a glancing blow rather than explode the storm window in shards. Brazier estimated that softball traveled about 330-340 feet, far enough to have made it to Fenway Park's Green Monster and possibly up into the monster seats, which is a home run in baseball. Brazier, 79, said he has heard the complaints about "juiced" bats. "Yeah, but it's very hard to prove," the official and former athlete said. "Those bats are heightened — juiced or not juiced. I can't tell if a bat's juiced," he added. Brazier said he was as amazed as anyone at the distance of some of the shots in last Sunday's championship playoffs. In a two-game sweep, Hampden Hill won the title from Giacalone Construction, 12-9 and 21-9. "The first aluminum bats were not as high tech," said Brazier, who noted that the hitters with the first generation aluminum bats had a hard time clearing the hurricane fence at the end of the field. About three years ago, said Arthur Pimental, the city added the screen to the chain link, but the bats were stronger still, and balls began flying across and up the street with no end in sight. The ASA said it sells a testing machine for about $700 that will quickly analyze a bat and report on whether it was doctored. Brazier said he could not say what the league would do, but he added he believed it wanted to continue using Burnham's Field where games have been held for generations back when bats were made of wood. "I do feel good for the neighbors," he said. "The players will adapt." Richard Gaines can be reached at rgaines@gloucestertimes.com.
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Photos
Aluminum bats will be banned from Burnham Park because too many balls are being hit into houses beyond the outfield. Gloucester Daily Times
John and Aria McElhenny sit with their children, Luke, 2, and Ruby, 4 months, on their front porch, which is just beyond left field at Burnham Field. The family has collected several dozen softballs that have gone over the high fence and into their yard, nearly hitting them and their children. Gloucester Daily Times