Nanny state update: Chicago legislator wants to ban aluminum bats for kids under 13

An article in this morning's Daily Herald gives horrifying details about a high school pitcher's facial injury that resulted from a line drive from a ball hit from a aluminum bat. The ballplayer was 17 at the time.

State legislator Robert Molaro (D-Chicago), wants a ban on aluminum bats for kids under 13--and the coaches or parents who ignore the ban "during a recreational baseball game" face a $500 fine.

Would this ban cover me? Several times last summer I lobbed some pitches to 11 year-old Little Marathon Pundit. She was using an aluminum bat. Would my homeowner's policy cover a $500 punsishment?

Some believe that baseballs come off aluminum bats with more velocity. Possibly. What's for certain, is that little-leaguers 13 and under don't hit the ball with as much force--they're well, littler.

From the Daily Herald:

Several local little league directors, coaches and parents say such a ban is unnecessary and that there's no difference between the safety of a wood bat versus that of a metal bat.

But proponents say wood bats are safer because the ball doesn't come off as fast or go as far as those hit off metal bats. Wood bats also are better for teaching children the game, they say.

Phil Rizzo, who runs Little League District 13 -- covering 18 leagues in Bartlett, Hanover Park, Streamwood, South Elgin, Carpentersville and other suburbs -- wants coaches, players and their families to speak out against a state ban on metal bats.

"If we didn't believe it was safe, we would have gone to wooden bats a long time ago," Rizzo said.

A North Dakota high school organization bans the use of metal bats. Pennsylvania recently legislators rejected such a ban, but the New York City Council passed a bill prohibiting the use aluminum bats in high school games.

Interestingly, aluminum bats are used exclusively in NCAA college baseball, much to the frustration of Major League Baseball scouts, who are forced to ponder--"What kind of hitter is this guy going to be using a wooden bat?"

This is not Molaro's first brush with nanny-ism--Early this year he introduced a bill to ban the goose liver delicacy foie gras in Illinois.

For more on Nanny-ism, I recommend the book, Nanny State: How Food Fascists, Teetotaling Do-Gooders, Priggish Moralists, and other Boneheaded Bureaucrats are Turning America into a Nation of Children.

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