The bat punctured his chest.
It flew through the air and punctured the chest of the Chicago Cubs’ Tyler Colvin over 50 feet away from home plate.
That’s a really big splinter.
Colvin, who is currently in stable condition, is a tough man.
A maple bat swung by teammate Welington Castillo in Sunday’s game against Florida broke in half and quickly traveled down the third base line. The bat struck Colvin in the chest, just inches from his heart.
Again, that was a maple bat, a bat that typically breaks into chunks, rather than an ash bat that splinters when broken.
Oh, and he did touch home plate after taking the stabbing, further verifying his toughness.
But now, as Colvin breathes with the help of a chest tube used to prevent a collapsed lung, one common question is again on people’s minds.
Could this be the end of maple bats?
Unfortunately, it’s unlikely.
Baseball has its dangers.
It’s not football where 300 pound men collide at full speed, but getting hit with a 95 mph fastball can do some damage.
Concussion-level damage.
And at the same time, shortstops shouldn’t have to worry about dodging a sharp object while picking up a ground ball.
I’ve seen pitchers get struck with a ball hit back at the mound, I’ve seen outfielders collide at full speed, but I have never seen a bat literally stab someone on the field.
It’s just too scary.
At this point, it is almost necessary to remove maple bats from the game of baseball.
Oakland Athletics relief pitcher Brad Ziegler, who was recently hit with a broken bat in the back, tweeted, “Hope it won’t take the death of a player/fan to get maple bats banned.”
I don’t think someone is going to die due to a broken bat flying through the air, but I do think someone’s career could be ended.
Thankfully, it’s just Colvin’s season that has ended, and thankfully, he was a rookie that can bounce back from such an event.
At some point, this won’t be the case, and the stubbornness of Major League Baseball adds to the problem.
Baseball, more than any other sport, is heavily dependent upon its past. There is an aura about it that some baseball enthusiasts refuse to touch.
This is the same league that won’t use advanced forms of instant replay.
The league has cracked down on maple bats over the past several years and the number of occurrences has decreased, according to MLB.
Almost any proposal to fix the maple bat situation would be quickly turned away.
And even those solutions are limited.
Obviously, metal bats aren’t an option — we don’t need 600-foot home runs every weekend — and wooden bat regulations are already stiff, so any introduction to something new would be difficult.
Despite the danger, many players continue to use maple bats, including Colvin himself.
They are made harder than ash bats but, at the same time, they are more brittle.
A ban is unlikely, but hopefully major leaguers can see the issue and take care of it themselves.
It leaves the MLB in its own pickle.
Ziegler hopes it doesn’t come down to a death for maple bats to be banned, but honestly, it could come down to something similar.
Reach the reporter at nathan.meacham@asu.edu
