Bats Losing Some Zing Ncaa’S Move Will Force Teams, Players To Adjust

Ray Hattenburg is no power hitter. He’s quick to admit this.

The Washington State junior ripped two home runs last season for the Cougars baseball team and has just three for his career.

“It was probably because of those bats,” Hattenburg said.

Yes, those bats.

The super lightweight aluminum things.

For Hattenburg, a 1995 graduate of Mead High, it was a 33-inch Easton Redline model that weighs in at 28 ounces. With that bat, he hit .279 through 36 games in 1998, tallying 26 runs, 29 hits and 20 RBIs in 104 at-bats.

But by the time Hattenburg’s senior campaign gets underway, he’ll have to retire the Redline.

The NCAA Executive Committee on Wednesday approved a change to baseball bats - effective in August 1999 - that will make powerful aluminum bats more similar to wooden ones.

The new bats can’t produce batted-ball speeds exceeding 93 miles per hour. There had been no limit for speed. And a bat’s diameter can’t be more than two inches or its length-to-weight differential bigger than three.

Hattenburg said he can’t predict how many balls he’ll hit out of the park with the new bat. He’s been swinging a wooden bat in practice for three years so he’s not too concerned.

He’ll be ahead of a lot of players.

“It might weed out some poor hitters,” the 6-foot-1, 185-pounder said. “But the halfway-decent hitters will adjust.”

Members of the Whitworth baseball team won’t adjust until they have to, said coach Keith Ward. They will swing their Redlines as long as possible.

The Pirates hit 55 homers in 37 games this spring using the Redline and another Easton model called the Reflex C-Core.

The change could be expensive, as high quality aluminum bats can cost up to $300. Whitworth players provide their own bats.

Originally, the NCAA rules committee had recommended that the change go into effect in January 1999, but the Executive Committee delayed the change to ensure time for proper testing and to make sure new bats would be available.

Easton, one of the country’s leading bat manufacturers, based in Van Nuys, Calif., has filed a $267 million lawsuit, alleging unlawful restraint of trade. Company officials believe the rule change could make existing bats obsolete.

Whitworth will stick by Easton for now.

“I’m not going to tell them not to (use them) because I guarantee the opposition’s going to be using them,” Ward said of the Redlines. “They’re not going to change until they have to.”

Ward said he believes other levels - like the NAIA, community colleges, high schools and perhaps even Little League - eventually will follow suit.

That would be fine with Spokane Indians manager Jeff Garber and his Boise Hawks counterpart, Tom Kotchman.

The change in metal bats would make their jobs of evaluating young prospects easier, they said. It’s difficult for scouts and managers to determine if a player who’s had success with an aluminum bat will be as efficient with a wooden bat in the professional ranks.

“It’s going to help our system because we’re now having to shell out a lot of money for a guy out of college who hasn’t proven he can hit with a wood bat,” Garber said. “So the only way we can evaluate him is on an aluminum bat, which is not even close to a wood bat.”

The NCAA hopes its new bat specifications will make the game safer and more enjoyable for fans.

Garber said he will be more likely to watch college games. He was frustrated with this year’s College World Series, in which Southern California defeated Arizona State 21-14 in a 4-hour game that featured nine home runs and 39 hits.

“It was just a joke,” Garber said, “watching everyone hit home runs. I mean, if we want to watch a home run derby, we’ll wait for the All-Star Game. I want to see the game of baseball being played… . It’s not as entertaining as it used to be.”

“That’s like arena football but it’s arena baseball,” Boise’s Kotchman said of the 1998 College World Series. “It’s like Bamm Bamm of the Flintstones swinging that big thing he did.”

Garber said the bat change will bring at least one other aspect back to the college game. Currently, many college pitchers don’t throw inside because hitters who are jammed still manage to get their lightweight bats through the strike zone.

The change will help hitters, too, Garber said. “A lot of the college players that we get play for the big inning. They’re not used to knowing how to bunt a guy over.”

Indians right fielder Jeremy Dodson hopes that’s the case.

It took Dodson more than two months to feel comfortable hitting with a wooden bat when he played for Topeka, Kan., of the Jayhawk summer wood league two years ago.

Dodson, a seventh-round draft pick out of Baylor University, had to adjust again this summer when he entered the pro system. Now he’s one of the Northwest League’s top hitters.

“It’s difficult changing from those kind of bats,” Dodson said of aluminum models.