My son has played organized baseball since he was 5 and he is 15 now
and everybody has always used a metal bat. They were just coming into
being when I was in Little League and have come a long way.

I remember when he was 9-years-old and I saw a somewhat smallish
10-year-old who wasnt all that good literally CRUSH a ball that almost
took off the pitchers head. It was then and there that I realized
something is way wrong with metal bats and it isn't the stupid "Ping!"
sound either. The ball was definitely coming off the bat harder and
faster than off a wooden bat.

I have done a lot of reseasrch and have come to realize that a metal
bat is supposed to do just that: Increase the speed the ball comes off
the bat and the distance. The way it does that is they have come out
with more and more metals that can be made into a bat with the walls
being thinner and thinner and more flexible. Inside the metal bat is a
bladder like in a football. This bladder contains various type of
pressurized gas. WHen the walls of the bat are flexed into the
bladder, the ball literlaly springs off the bat with ungodly power and
speed.

Colleges have been thinking about switching from metal bats to wooden
ones again as well. The metal bats, obviously, last a lot longer
because they rarely break. But when the players use a wooden bat for
the major league scouts, their balls fall 40-50-60+-feet shorter than
they normally would. This turns a player who is a home run hitter into
a hitter that hits long flyball outs. This proves the theory that a
ball is hit further with a metal bat than with a wooden bat.

Finally, I know it is harder for fielders, especially outfielders, to
play their position with metal bats because a dinky little pop to the
pitcher sounds the same as a double against the fence. Not that
somehting like that should make a difference but when a skinny little
kid can hit a ball a lot harder than he is supposed to, it gets
dangerous. And don't forget: 9- and 10-year-olds pitch from 48-feet
away and their reflexes are not nearly as developed as an older person
and if that skinny little kid hits a ball like a 16-year-old, don't you
think that puts the pitcher at a severe disadvantage?

I will get off my soapbox now...