The Costly Choice: High School Baseball Players Opt for Wooden Bats

It looked like the luggage of a professional baseball player.

Aomori Yamada’s No. 3 Rikusho Tsushima and No. 5 Yudai Yoshikawa, who made it to the top eight at this spring’s selection tournament, attracted attention for their use of wooden bats.

When the two entered the stadium, they carried team-matching bags containing gloves and change of clothes, as well as a bat case that looked like a round club. I was told that there are always 10 wooden bats in there.

Impressions of using a wooden bat: “Very good”

said Yoshikawa, who had five hits in 12 at bats in three games, an average of over 40%.

“Wooden bats tend to get damaged when used in practice, so I use one for practice and one for matches. Also, bats sometimes break during matches.”

Like Yoshikawa, Tsushima, who was also excited with five hits in three games, talks about the merits of using a wooden bat.

“If you pull it too hard, it will break, so I’ve learned how to stick the bat out from inside and not go against the course. I think using a wooden bat is great for reviewing your own form.”

The new standard bats introduced this spring don’t fly as far as the previous ones, and they also have a weight limit of over 900 grams. On the other hand, there is no weight restriction for wooden bats. In that case, I felt that a lighter wooden bat would certainly be more advantageous.

Purchased 12 wooden pieces out of pocket, “spent nearly 200,000 yen”

However, the biggest bottleneck is still cost. Yoshikawa reportedly purchased 12 wooden bats with his own money for the selection tournament. Each bottle costs about 15,000 yen, so that alone comes to nearly 200,000 yen. Tsushima is also being forced to spend almost the same amount of money.

Kohei Wakino, the manager of Aomori Yamada, speaks with a heavy heart.

“The team bought some wooden bats for practice, but they still had to be broken.If you were to use them individually, you would have to pay for them yourself.In the first place, metal bats were introduced to high school baseball. One of the reasons for this was probably due to cost considerations.In other words, metal is more durable.”

Metal bats were first introduced in high school baseball in the summer of 1974. At that time, metal bats were nothing more than unbreakable. However, as the technological competition between manufacturers intensified year by year, metal bats transformed into ultra-high-performance gear that was nicknamed the “magic bat.” In order to put a stop to this trend, the Takanoren has repeatedly reviewed the standards for bats, including the recent standard changes.

[Next page]Two bats broke = “30,000 yen went flying”

2024-04-11 14:08:38
#reality #baseball #money #professional #baseball #bats #wood #high #schools #metal #bats #Koshien #participating #schools #shop #clerks #reveal #break #bats #game…it #costs #yen #High #School #Baseball #Number #Web