How Are Wooden Bats Different From Aluminum Bats?

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Mickey Hiter with Satellite Baseball. The question's been asked: how are metal bats different from wooden bats? Well, first of all, one of the differences are rather obvious. Metal bats are made from some type of metal or some type of composite material and wooden bats are made from just regular old wood. Metal bats are hollow in nature, usually have a larger barrel, and are usually lighter because they're hollow inside. They also make bats now that have flexible handles that gives more spring to the bat. They also make bats that have bladders inside the structure of the bat and basically the advantage of the metal bat is that the ball goes a little bit further with a metal bat than it does with a wooden bat. Also, they're not as prone to breakage. Metal bats will dent, they will crack and they will break. But they're not as likely to and it usually takes more abuse to destroy a metal bat. A wooden bat on the other hand, tends to be a little bit heavier because it's solid in nature. The rule book for wooden bats says it has to be a one piece solid wood stick. So that's what makes the bat a little bit heavier. Generally speaking, for high school and college, metal bats are what we call minus three. That means that if this is a 32 inch bat, there will be the ounces, the weight of the bat will be 29 -- minus three from the length. Wood bats, on the other hand, tend to be, in general, minus twos. So if this were a 32 inch bat it would probably be a 30 ounce bat. The game was initially made to be played with wood. And many colleges, some high schools and all of the pros use wooden bats. There's things in between. There's metal/wood bats that have metal handles and wooden barrels. There are composite bats that are neither metal nor wood. But I guess the advantage would be a younger player would have more success and do a better job with a metal bat because it's lighter, it's got a bigger barrel and it's easier for him to control. On the other hand, a wooden bat, if you're trying to be a good player at a youth, is good to practice with because the sweet spot is smaller, it's a littler heavier bat, which you'll build up some strength and if you were to make it to the level where it was necessary for you to wood, you would already be accustomed to using a wooden bat. There are many differences between metal and wood. They all have their advantages and they have their disadvantages. But basically, this is what a metal bat looks like, you can see it's bigger, it's lighter and it has more spring to it. This wooden bat, on the other hand, it's traditional, it's old school and it's fun to play with and there's nothing like the sound of the crack of a wooden bat. And that's basically the differences between a metal bat and a wooden bat."