No Metal Allowed
Arcata’s wood bat softball league
“Ever since the first caveman picked up the first cudgel, went to the front door and smacked the first nosy saber-toothed tiger in the snout, mankind has known the atavistic power and pleasure of the bat.”
— Thomas Boswell, How Life Imitates the World Series
Slow pitch softball players in Humboldt County may not exactly be cavemen — though in some instances, that is a debatable point — but they do take pleasure in their bats. However, for those of you not keenly following all the latest developments in the softball subculture, not all players are swinging the same kind of bats these days. In fact, in Arcata something quite original is happening: For the first season ever, each team in the Mad River Softball Association is swinging wood bats only.
Let me explain.
For many years, going back until at least the 1970s, the only bats used in 12-inch slow pitch softball were aluminum bats. Composed of lightweight aluminum or metal, these softball bats came with no special design or enhancements. Little league, high school and college players have also been swinging aluminum bats for decades now. Of course, baseball purists have been howling about the sacrilege of it all — no more crack-of-the-bat sweet music from a ball meeting a wooden Louisville slugger. There’s not a lot of poetry in a metallic “doink.” But, the argument goes, it saves money in busted bats, the balls fly further and on and on.
There’s a team in Arcata that I’ve been playing for since 1986 called the Hey Juan! Barnstormers, and we’ve been competing in the Arcata league every year (except for one season when we switched in a Eureka league). Arcata residents Paul Bressoud and my twin brother Paul DeMark founded the team in 1985, and we’ve enjoyed a good, long run, winning a few championships, usually fielding a competitive team and simply enjoying the game.
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ONE Comments
Comment / By Jeremy ras / Sept. 8, 2009, 1:46 p.m.
Just ran across your story. So true I have gave up on metal bat. I miss the long home runs but wood bat is the best.