The Breaking Point: Examining the Potential Liability of Maple Baseball Bat Manufacturers for Injuries Caused by Broken Maple Baseball Bats
By Matthew A. Westover.
Both participating in and watching sporting events involves some risk of injury. The shelves of law libraries are filled with cases involving injuries sustained by players, coaches, and spectators at baseball games, hockey games, golf outings, and numerous other recreational events. Some of these injuries are attributable to new technology designed to increase player performance.
Participants in athletic competitions are constantly looking to gain a competitive advantage over their opposition. In order to gain this competitive edge, players have resorted to such things as performance enhancing drugs and stealing signs and plays from opposing teams. One of the most effective ways, however, players seek to gain a competitive edge is through improvements in player equipment. Equipment manufacturers have responded by creating new technologies designed to increase player performance. These equipment manufacturers, however, owe a duty of care to both participants and non-participants not to substantially increase the dangers which are inherent in the sport.
Many of these equipment manufacturers produce equipment specifically designed for amateur and professional baseball players. Although Major League Baseball (“MLB”) has never permitted the use of high performance aluminum alloy baseball bats, baseball bat manufacturers have nonetheless tried to improve the design of wood bats. The quest to improve the design of wood bats has led to the production of maple baseball bats. Maple bats were initially created to give players an alternative to wood bats made from ash, which was the traditional wood of choice for nearly every professional baseball player. Maple baseball bats quickly became popular, and popularity soared in 2001, when Barry Bonds broke MLB’s single-season home run record using a maple bat.
As more players make the switch to maple bats, it appears as though there is a visible increase in the number of broken bats. It is nearly impossible to determine if more bats are actually breaking because The Elias Sports Bureau, the official statistics keeper of MLB, does not keep track of such a statistic. However, it is likely that people are noticing an increase in the number of bats that break violently into two or more pieces. As a result, players, coaches, sportswriters, and other media personalities have called for the prohibition of maple bats, before a player, coach, or fan is seriously injured or even killed.
Presently, MLB and other professional and amateur leagues continue to permit the use of maple bats. Consequently, players continue to use maple bats, and the bats continue to break violently, creating an increased risk of injury to players, coaches, and spectators of the game.