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But some around baseball are concerned that some day a player won't be able to get out of the way of a jagged piece of lumber.
"Someone's going to have to do something about it before someone gets hurt,'' one Phillies player said.
One of the big problems, particularly from a pitchers' perspective, is that most of today's major league hitters are using bats that are made from maple rather than ash, which was the norm up until the late 1990s. While maple is considered the "harder'' wood, bats that are made from it tend to shatter when they break, resulting in some of the jagged projectiles that seem to fly through the air with regularity during games.
Ash bats, meanwhile, tend to split when broken. Former Phillies reliever and current broadcaster Larry Andersen recalled a game years ago in which an opposing batter broke his bat and had to take a timeout because his palm was pinched by the cracked wood.
"Now, guys walk back to the dugout with toothpicks in their hands," Andersen said.
While most players acknowledge the difference between ash and maple, there is some debate over whether one represents more of a safety concern than the other.
Phillies third baseman Greg Dobbs is a maple bat convert who doesn't think there is much cause for concern.
"I don't think they are any more dangerous than the ash," said Dobbs, who began his professional career using ash before switching over to maple. "A bat's going to break. I've seen plenty of ash bats shatter in half, fly out to the mound, I've seen plenty of maple do it. Sometimes they break like that, sometimes they don't. To say one is more dangerous than the other, I don't think so."
Utility man Eric Bruntlett agrees, even though last week during a game in Arizona he had to dodge a broken bat at shortstop while fielding a ground ball.
"There were two splinters and the ball, and they were all coming in the same direction, and you had to pick out which one's which," he said.
But Bruntlett, who used ash before recently switching to a maple bat given to him by Chase Utley, said he doesn't think the bats are a hazard.
Andersen disagrees.
During a recent road trip to Pittsburgh, he spoke with Pirates hitting coach Don Long, a former minor league hitting coordinator with the Phillies. A week before, Long had been struck an inch below his eye with a shard from a maple bat, a wound that required 12 stitches to patch.
"He said he was an inch away from losing his eye," Andersen said.
Phillies general manager Pat Gillick said he thinks maple bats are a safety concern. He also believes that major league baseball eventually will address the issue.
"I think it is [a concern],'' Gillick said. "Some for the players, but a lot for the fans, too. They are a missile, and they break, and they go into the stands, so I would think it's a safety concern.''
There are plenty of good reasons why hitters use maple. They like the fact that the bats don't "flake." They also are believed to break less frequently. In the end, a bat is like a pair of shoes - it's all about feel. There's a reason why Bruntlett uses Utley's bat, and why Chris Coste uses Jayson Werth's bat, and why only two Phillies chose to use the honorary pink models on Mother's Day.
Bat specifications - including weight and handle width - are detailed in baseball's collective bargaining agreement. Gillick said he thinks baseball eventually will make some changes to it.
"I think something's going to be done," Gillick said. "I have no idea [when], but I think something will be done."
Every day, reserve outfielder So Taguchi runs through a pregame routine with outfielder coordinator Jerry Martin, taking fly balls at the wall and fielding bouncing balls in the corner. Yesterday, Eric Bruntlett joined him for the first time. That's because manager Charlie Manuel appears willing to use Bruntlett in some of the same situations he uses Taguchi: as a pinch-runner and defensive replacement. The veteran utility man had played 55 games in the outfield during his 5 years in the majors entering this season. This season, he hit .250 and stole three bases while filling in for injured shortstop Jimmy Rollins.
Two nights ago, he pinch-ran for Pat Burrell and replaced him in leftfield, a role that Taguchi had been filling. Taguchi was unavailable because Manuel had used him to bunt for Kyle Kendrick earlier in the game.
"I think both of them run pretty good, but they're not what you call burners," Manuel said.
Phillies pitchers almost had to shag more than fly balls during batting practice - they almost had to shag a fan. A fan in the centerfield stands tumbled over the fence before the game while reaching for a baseball and was carted off the field with an apparent leg injury.
The injury isn't serious: A Phillies spokesman said the fan was treated at Citizens Bank Park, but declined to be taken to a hospital. He was given tickets to a future game. *
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