A Comparison of Injury Rates and Game Characteristics between Non-Wood and Wood Bat Usage in High School Baseball

Abstract

The use of non-wood and wood bats during baseball games has been a source of controversy for many years. Individuals have speculated that there is an increased risk of injury for pitchers and position players in games using non-wood bats. PURPOSE: To determine if differences exist in the injury rates and offensive game statistics of baseball players who use non-wood bats compared to wood bats. METHODS: Thirty-two high school baseball teams participated and agreed to rotate use of both wood and non-wood bats for designated games. At the end of each game the baseball coaching staff for each school was asked to complete questionnaires regarding the type of bat used, number of injuries, hits, and runs scored, duration of the game, and number of broken bats (if using wood bats). A Chi-square (x2) analysis was used to determine significance of injury (P = .05), while dependent t-tests were used to determine significance of the remaining variables. Because multiple tests were calculated, α1 was adjusted using a Bonferroni's correction (P = .05/3, or P = .017). RESULTS: Thirty-two Illinois high school baseball teams submitted data on wood bat usage and 11 of the 32 teams reported data for games played with both wood and nonwood bats. There was no statistical difference in the number of injuries/game (x2 = 2.48, P = .12, RR = 4.73, CI = .04-571.9) or the number of runs scored/game (P = .03) with non-wood bats compared to wood bats. However, games using non-wood bats had a significantly greater number of hits per game (P = .005) and duration of game (P = .009). Furthermore, wood bats had an incidence of breakage of 28.3 bats for every 1000 at-bats. As such, a wood bat was used for an average of 35.5 at-bats before breakage. CONCLUSIONS: Although debate continues regarding the use of non-wood bats and an increased risk of injury, our results show no such association exists among high school baseball players. What may be even more important is the very low number of injuries regardless of bat type reported during the baseball games. However, the nonwood bats did produce greater offensive statistics than its wood counterpart, which tended to break at a semi-frequent rate. These results would suggest that non-wood bats are a safe and viable option for use in high school baseball games. Supported by the National Federation of State High School Associations.