Changing my game? Let me think about it

Doug McKenzie

After further review

As an admitted sports fan (or fanatic if you ask my wife), I'm one of the few people I know that can say that I truly love my job.

As a sports coordinator for Greater Media Newspapers, I often get out in the field and attend various sporting events for work-related reasons, whether it be establishing contacts, or actually covering a game for one of our 12 weekly papers.

And I have to admit that, quite often, when sitting in the bleachers at a high school football game, or standing along the fence at a Little League baseball game, I can't help feel a little guilty that I'm actually getting paid to be there.

I say to myself, "This is like paying an alcoholic to sit at a bar and drink. Or like funding a teenage girl's shopping spree."

The fact is, I can't get enough of sports, regardless of the level.

And while I enjoy watching a disturbingly wide variety of sports (does anyone else put the remote down when they find ESPN's championship billiards coverage?), there's a special place in my heart for baseball. It is the sport I had the most success with as a child, and the game that has captured my imagination ever since.

I still dream about playing sometimes, and I'm sad to report that, even in my dreams, I still can't hit a curveball.

However, my inability to become the next Don Mattingly (Dougie Baseball?) did nothing to diminish my love affair for the game.

And I'm doing my best to pass that passion along to my 2-year-old daughter - she already gets as excited about seeing the Mets' David Wright as she does Elmo.

For all those reasons, I take special interest when anyone talks about making changes in baseball.

And that's exactly what New Jersey State Assemblyman Patrick J. Diegnan is doing.

A couple of weeks ago, Diegnan (D-Middlesex) introduced legislation (AB 3388) to return youth and high school baseball leagues to wood-bat-only status, removing from the dugout the expensive high-tech metal bats that have been blamed for some serious injuries to amateur ballplayers across the nation.

The measure comes on the heels of a near-fatal injury sustained last month by a 12-year-old pitcher from Wayne, whose heart momentarily stopped after he was struck in the chest by a line drive off a metal bat.

Diegnan's legislation would mandate the use of wood bats in all leagues where minors under age 18 participate. An exemption would be granted only for a game in which the visiting team hails from out of state.

It wouldn't be ground-breaking legislation, as several individual leagues across the nation have already begun to remove metal bats from the dugout. But it would send shockwaves through the state's baseball community.

I applaud Diegnan for introducing the legislation, if for no other reason, then to open up the issue for debate.

The problem is, I'm not sure how I feel about it. I consider myself somewhat of a baseball purist (who naturally hates the designated hitter), and I'm really enjoying the emergence of the wood-bat baseball leagues that are popping up all over the state and surrounding areas.

(For those of you baseball fans who haven't yet experienced some of those leagues, like the ABCCL and Jersey Shore Wooden Bat League, you don't know what you're missing.)

However, I also wonder if eliminating the use of aluminum bats by our young players will put them at a disadvantage down the road. It's already challenging enough to earn a baseball scholarship coming out of New Jersey, where the sport is not played year-round.

How would the fact that our kids have never hit with an aluminum bat affect how college scouts would measure their potential?

And how about the pitchers? Players participating in wooden bat leagues for the first time are often amazed at the differences the bats make, including how it changes a pitcher's mindset toward approaching hitters.

How would a New Jersey kid, who has seen nothing but wooden bats his entire life, react to facing batters with aluminum bats for the first time at the collegiate level, at the age of 18?

I'm left wondering how other people feel about the issue. Therefore, over the next couple of weeks, I'm going to reach out to a lot of those contacts I've made over the years while making my rounds, and measure the reaction to Diegnan's legislation.

I also invite anyone, whether you're a player, coach, parent or simply a fan, to send me your thoughts on the matter.

I realize in the grand scheme of things, this is hardly the most important piece of legislation facing our state's elected officials these days.

But this is the future of baseball in New Jersey we're talking about here.

And as a baseball junkie, I take that very seriously.

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