Still Americas Pastime

Two nights ago, the Yankees won the World Series.  Due to an incredible amount of homework, I’m mentioning that for the first time right now.

But then again, the Yankees have now won the World Series 27 times, so it’s not really news.

Ok, that was a little unfair.  After all, isn’t part of the reason so many people hate the Yankees is because they’ve won more World Series than any other team?  In fact, the franchise with the most wins not named Yankees is the St. Louis Cardinals and they only have 10.

But this post isn’t really about the Yankees, it’s about the Free Agent market this offseason. 

Last year, the market was really interesting.  Some big name free agents signed massive contracts rather quickly.  But most free agents watched the fitful economy make teams bide their time and agonize much more over each dollar they offered.

Both sports and news analysts commented on the recession/depression lowering the amount of money that teams were going to spend on the Free Agent market.  With the U.S. economy supposed on the mend, could this year’s Free Agent market be a sign of better financial times to come?

There are few things sweeter than the sound of the ball hitting the sweet spot of a baseball bat.  Well, as long as it’s a wooden bat.  There’s a reason the expression is “the crack of the bat” not “the ping of the bat.”

While less than impressive, the sound of the aluminum bat is not the real reason for my dislike of the aluminum bat.

Aluminum bats can reinforce bad mechanics in a swing.  This is because when you hit the ball off the end of the bat or get jammed, you can still hit the ball pretty far.  You don’t have to worry about hitting the ball with the sweet spot.

I’m not proposing that we stop using aluminum bats.  For younger kids they’re great.  They’re lighter and you don’t have to replace them as often. 

But by the time kids get to middle school, they should only use wooden bats.  That when they’ll have enough experience to know what they’re doing, but still be young enough to not be totally set in their ways.  Plus they’ll have enough time to get used to wooden bats and fix their swing before high school and college.