Metal Bat Dangers Prompt Youth Baseball Changes

The dangers posed by aluminum bats have Shrewsbury officials looking for ways to keep their youth sports safe for all while attempting to juggle restrictions imposed by the borough's current sports facilities.

Local youth baseball coaches and borough Parks and Recreation employees have raised concerns about the small infields at two of the borough's three ball fields and how they force athletes to play closer to home plate, Councilman Pete Meyer said during a council meeting recently. The infield squeeze increases the chance of being hit and injured by a baseball coming fast off of an aluminum bat, they argue.

The risk is even greater, officials feel, for younger athletes and baseball novices who might lack the reaction time necessary to field - or avoid - a line drive hit. 

The borough's fields meet Little League Baseball standards when it comes to the size of their diamonds. A Little League field includes a distance of 46 feet from home plate to the pitcher's mound and 60 feet from home plate to first base. Many coaches have opted instead to play at the 50-70 instead, a distance used for Senior Little League but being adopted by many as the new youth baseball standard. 

According to a report from the New York Times, a baseball travels up to 20 miles per hour faster off of an aluminum bat than a wooden bat. The same article details several significant injuries and deaths caused by children being struck by baseballs hit off of aluminum bats.

One solution is banning aluminum bats. Another is creating larger infields.

The problem is, only one of the borough's three fields is capable of handling the adjustment to a larger infield.

Meyer said Sickles Field is currently the only borough field capable of having the bases and pitcher's mound pushed back. As a result, the field has been overused by local and traveling teams who would rather play there than at the other locations. Avoiding fields because of a safety issue has generated its own set of issues, it seems.

Shrewsbury is hamstrung in the changes it can make, however. It's not as simple as drilling new holes further down the line for the bases. The entire infields need to be replaced. In the case of Manson Field, which is located next to the borough's , the baseball field adjoins a second field often used for other youth sports like soccer and lacrosse. With games sometimes going on simultaneously, expanding the infield and thus expanding the entire baseball field could create additional safety concerns.

Then there's the issue of the backstop. The state requires a minimum distance of 25 feet between home plate the backstop. The only exceptions are fields that were grandfathered in before the minimum backstop distance was introduced, including all three of Shrewsbury's ball fields. If the borough makes any significant changes to its infields the additional backstop distance would have to be added. There's simply not enough room, Meyer said.

"It's a little more work than the DPW (Department of Public Works) is able to do," he said.

While no clear solution exists for either the small infields and the overuse of Sickles Park, Meyer said the Parks and Recreation Department is weighing its options. For now it looks as though Sickles will have to handle the baseball traffic the other fields cannot.