Prep players prove their mettle with wood bats

PETALUMA – Of all the words that have been written or said, of all the opinions issued condemning aluminum bats or glorifying the wood ones, it was a high school baseball player who so far has said it better than anyone else.

"When you get a hit with a wood bat," said Cardinal Newman's Jason Alexander Wednesday at the 13th Annual Adam Westcott Tournament (it ended Thursday), "you feel like you earned it."

A wood hit is authentic. A wood hit arises more from skill than luck. A wood hit feels as natural as the substance that produced it. A wood hit makes this noise that subconsciously reminds everyone that the game of baseball was born next to a forest, that way back in the day someone cut down a branch and started swinging it, as opposed to cutting down a piece of, um, aluminum.

"If I get off-balance by a slow curve," said DeShawn Harper, another Newman player, "I'm hitting off my front foot and I still can get a hit by flicking it."

With that, Harper gave this rather dismissive wave of his right wrist, almost as if he was apologizing for it.

"If someone in high school is hitting .400 with an aluminum bat," I asked, "what would be he hitting if he was swinging wood?"

"Around .200," Newman's Steven Stout said.

"Could be .250," Harper said.

"All depends on how you get your hits," Alexander said.

The aluminum bat provides a false barometer on skill. That's what made the Westcott Tournament an interesting study. No aluminum bats were used in this 12-game soir?. Marin Catholic pitcher Gunnar Sundberg was hit in the head with a batted ball March 11th, the drama and trauma so severe, all Marin County high school baseball teams said they would switch to wood bats for the rest of the season.

Drake and Redwood played in the Westcott and to honor that decision the other six teams in the Westcott switched to wood as well.

That said, I couldn't wait to talk to Casa pitcher Charlie Hegarty after Wednesday's game. Pitching in the third inning against Newman Hegarty threw a fastball to Max Peterson and his wooden bat. Peterson hit this screaming one-hopper right at Hegarty's head.

"If I didn't put my glove up in time," Hegarty said, "it would have hit me in the face." Hegarty's physical reaction was excellent. His mental reaction was more interesting.

"It pumped me up," said the right-hander.

The competitor was aroused. A few minutes later Hegarty was asked if he knew about the Marin Catholic pitcher.

"My cousin goes there and told me about it," Hegarty said. "It definitely scared me. I wouldn't want that to happen to me."

The human being had replaced the competitor. The heat of battle had cooled. It was almost if what happened back in the third inning had happened to someone else. He would never want to get hit in the melon by a smoking baseball. Yet, if Hegarty's glove had been a tick slower to shield his face, a ball off a wooden bat would have made headlines Wednesday and confused a bunch of people.

Would Hegarty have protected his face if Peterson had hit the same shot with an aluminum bat? Yes, that thought occurred. The Casa-Newman game provided a lot of those silent comparisons.

Not one driven ball even rolled to the warning track. Didn't even roll near the warning track.

"If you're playing with an aluminum bat," said Newman pitcher/outfielder Steven Stout, "you can give up six runs in an inning, knowing you can come back in the bottom of the inning and score eight runs."

Is that baseball or pinball? Just asking.

In the Casa-Newman game, each run felt like gold bullion. There was bunting, for criminey sakes! Casa's Andrew Cardona even broke his bat in the fourth inning! "Our confidence in hitting has been down a little bit with the wooden bat," Hegarty said.

Wood is lumber. Wood is heavy. The image of swinging heavy lumber is swinging a tree trunk through the strike zone.

"Whether you swing either wood or metal," Stout said, "the swing should be the same. But it hasn't been that way. A lot of guys think they have to take bigger, more aggressive swings."

All that lumber, it's not just wood in their hands. It's a psychological obstacle. It's like pushing a tank through mud. It's like that old-time picture of Hall of Famer Jimmie Foxx holding a log in his hands. Yeah, sure, if you had Popeye arms like Jimmie Foxx you could whip the lumber through the strike zone.

"We had to have some batting practice," said Newman coach T.J. McMahon, "so we could learn how to use wood."

True and necessary as that statement is, it was sad nonetheless it had to be made. One of baseball's most alluring qualities is that it remains remarkably unchanged from its pastoral roots. Sure, gloves are bigger and wool uniforms are history and the grass is fake and stadium lights exist but it still has the look of the game born 150 years ago.

Until you hear the ping when ball meets aluminum bat.

Until you realize an aluminum bat doesn't break, until you realize there would be no high school baseball if wooden bats had to be replaced as often as Lady Gaga's hairstyle. Yes, a wooden hit is authentic but, and this is the damnation of it, it's just not practical.

For more on North Bay sports go to Bob Padecky's blog at padecky.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Columnist Bob Padecky at 521-5223 or bob.padecky@pressdemocrat.com