My junior year of high school, four years ago, the conference my school was in switched from aluminum bats to wood bats after a horrific scene the previous year when a friend of mine almost died after being hit in the head with a line drive while he was pitching. Because attending the A10 tourney today is the first time in over four years that I've been to a game where aluminum bats are used, I had forgotten how awful they are.
The sound of a wood bat hitting a ball is music to my ears; the sound of a metal bat hitting a ball is Ashlee Simpson to my ears.
It's time for the NCAA to switch to wood bats. In addition to the injury and sound factor, wood bats would allow people to truly see how good a hitter is. Just like a good three-point shooter in college may not be very good from NBA three-point range, a good power hitter in college, or just any kind of hitter in general, may not be as good as we think either. Conversely, college pitchers are probably better than their stats show. I have a lot more respect for guys like Steve Holmes, No. 1 seeded Rhode Island's star pitcher and the A-10 pitcher of the year, knowing that his ridiculous 1.14 ERA actually is inflated simply because his opposition uses metal bats.