MLB must ban lethal maple bats

There probably is nothing the game of baseball can do about fans in the stands being seriously hurt by foul balls.

I'm thinking of the little boy from Frankfort who ended up in the hospital recently.

But baseball can certainly do something about the potentially lethal broken bats being hurled into the stands.

It's only a matter of time before someone is severely injured. There are just too many bat manufacturers out there using different kinds of wood.

Here is what I think should be done. Let baseball regulate the type of wood used in bats.

Go back to using ash. Maple bats are to prone to shatter.

After all, baseball has barred the use of aluminum bats because the ball flies off those bats much faster and has led to grave injuries to players in those leagues that permit them.

Ballplayers are also designing their own bats with larger barrels, which cause breakage.

The business of baseball has to be proactive and get moving before there is a fatality in the stands.

Timothy D. O'Reilly

Chicago