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Rays' Maddon lashes out on maple bats after Price injury

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By TONY FABRIZIO | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 10, 2010

FORT MYERS - Joe Maddon has been warning about the dangers posed by shatter-prone maple bats for years.

After seeing one of his front-line pitchers narrowly avoid serious injury by one Wednesday, the Rays manager made an impassioned plea for baseball to do something about them.

"If we're going to wait for somebody to actually get killed or impaled, we're going to wait way too long," Maddon said in a voice hoarse wtih laryngitis.

David Price was struck by the barrel end of Adrian Beltre's shattered bat in the second inning of the Rays' 8-6 victory against the Red Sox. He left the game with his right (non-pitching) hand wrapped but sustained only a palm abrasion with some bleeding.

It was a close call, and Maddon said there have been too many. He said the maple bat is "turning into the Claymore mine of baseball," referring to an anti-personnel mine used by the U.S. military that shoots shrapnel at enemy infantry.

Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester, who pitched the first 2 2/3 innings Wednesday, also spoke up about the bats.

"It kind of sucks that baseball hasn't done a very good job with the maple bats," he said. "It seems they tried to do something last year, but they just aren't getting the results. They're a danger to the game. They're a danger to all the players and the fans."

Price was struck one batter after Kevin Youkilis ripped a shot by him "that nearly took my kneecap off." He said the bat came at him so unexpectedly, he doesn't know how he evaded it or how his glove came off.

"I guess I just saw it at the last second,' he said. "I threw my hand up, and I guess it just flew off."

Maddon bolted to the mound, not certain where Price was struck or how badly he was injured. He was relieved to find that the injury wasn't serious, and that it was to his non-throwing hand.

"I saw the bat go and I saw him protect himself," Maddon said. "I didn't know if it hit him in the shoulder, in the neck, I couldn't tell. And I go out there and I see his hand bleeding, and I didn't know if it had gone through his hand or not."

Maddon stopped short of calling for an all-out ban on maple bats at all levels of professional baseball. He said it should first be determined whether "there's some that break less than others" or "a specific bat that's the culprit."

Maple bats – as opposed to traditional ash bats - came in vogue in 2001, when Barry Bonds used them throughout his record-setting 73-home run season.

Players like maple because it's a denser wood, and the ball will jump off the bat. But a study by baseball's Safety and Heath Advisory committee in 2008 found that maple bats are three times as likely to shatter as likely to shatter as ash bats.

There have been numerous incidents of broken bats threatening players and fans, such as one two years ago when Pirates hitting coach Don Long was truck in the face.

Rays outfielder Gabe Kapler, who has played 11 years in the majors and managed briefly in the minors, said he isn't sure what, if any action, should be taken.

"We never want to see anybody get hurt, and that was a scary moment today," he said. "But I don't know, guys are really used to using those bats now. So I can't really speak to how comfortable they would be giving them up at this point."

Maddon said his concern isn't only for his players and coaches.

"I feel the same about a 10-year-old kid sitting behind the dugout," he said. "It's dangerous, it's wrong, and I know pre-maple bats, I never saw that. It was very rare. "

Reporter Tony Fabrizio can be reached at 813-259-7994.

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