More Concern Over the Use of Maple Bats in MLB

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Cubs Rookie OF Tyler Colvin Impaled by Another Broken Maple Bat

Photo of the broken Maple bat that hit Colvin taken from the Yellon article linked below

The latest incident in MLB concerning the dangerous use of maple bats comes at the expense of rookie OF for the Cubs, Tyler Colvin. While on third base as a baserunner, Colvin headed towards the plate on contact when in his sprint towards home he was pierced in the upper chest by the broken off barrel of the batter’s bat. Here’s the You Tube footage of this incident…

According to what was reported by SN Nation writer Al Yellon in his article “Does Someone Have To Be Killed Before MLB Does Something About Shattered Bats?”, the sharpened end of the bat’s barrel pierced Colvin’s chest, just missing puncturing his heart by a few inches! That’s just too close for comfort. It took the death of 1B coach Mike Coolbaugh during a game on July 22, 2007 for MLB to mandate the wearing of batting helmets for all first and third base coaches. Coolbaugh was struck on the head by a batted ball while coaching 1B. The report stated that he was killed on impact per the Wikipedia page on Coolbaugh. As Yellon suggests in his article, do we need to wait for a death before MLB officials do anything about the dangers that go along with how maple bats are breaking?

Please go to Al Yellon’s article for more details. Yellon reminds the reader of other incidents that have occured inthat article. For a lighter look into this serious topic, please go back and read my 2008 (humorous) rant in the link provided.