Bad Wood

Just caught on Baseball Musings that plate umpire Brian O'Nora was drilled in the head by a broken bat tonight. Musings asks, "Does anyone know if it was a maple bat?"

It certainly was one of those constantly cracking maple sticks. Maybe this will be the straw to get baseball and the players union together to collectively get rid of these toothpicks.

Miguel Olivo, the player whose bat injured O'Nora, switched to and Ash bat the rest of the night. He was 0-1 with maple, 1-3 with Ash. Kansas City shortstop Mike Aviles also switched to ash for the remainder of the game.

"I go back and forth," Aviles said. "Honestly, I don't want them to get rid of it because I like using maple. I like the option of having both if I want to use it."

Aviles went 2-2 with the ash bat with two runs, an RBI and a walk. He was 0-1 with his maple model, striking out in the first inning.

This article and then this article would've been enough for me to switch from maple bats to ash for good.