Catastrophic Injuries fuel fight over bats
Ann and Tom Cook have become advocates for wooden bats over aluminum. Their son Matt was struck by a ball off an aluminum bat during practice March 30. A ball hit the left side of his head as he pitched a varsity batting practice. The accident fractured his skull, caused substantial bleeding and swelling in his brain, dulled sensation down his right side, and severely impaired his ability to speak. He faces many months of intense physical, occupational, and speech therapy. He spent two days in the intensive care unit at Children's Hospital Boston and is now in the pediatric unit at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital. His is the most recent incident of a batted ball leading to serious injury on the field, but his parents have few statistics to back their fight against the use of aluminum bats. The frightening ordeal has prompted Cook's parents to advocate that schools switch from aluminum to wooden bats echoing a debate that has long simmered among high school baseball teams and in Little League, where aluminum bats predominate. "There's no empirical evidence, no data that says wooden bats are any safer than metal bats," said Paul Wetzel, spokesman for the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association.
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