USA
Baseball, the national governing body for the sport of baseball in the
U.S., in conjunction with participating national member organizations
announced today the decision to adopt a new method for measuring bat
performance in the testing of youth bats. Informed by the research of
leading scientists on the USA Baseball Bat Study Committee, and
supported by its NMOs, -- including the American Amateur Baseball
Congress (AABC), Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), Babe Ruth Baseball/Cal
Ripken Baseball, Dixie Youth Baseball, Little League Baseball and PONY
Baseball -- USA Baseball has concluded that recent advancements in
science, engineering, technology, and the materials available to
fabricate non-wood bats, now allow the manufacturers to construct youth
bats that can perform at a wood-like level through the entire range of
lengths and weights of youth bats.
The new USA Baseball
bat standard (USABat), which will apply to bats that are classified
below the NCAA and NFHS level of play, will be implemented on January 1,
2018, allowing the bat manufacturers sufficient time to bring these
bats to the marketplace.
"USA Baseball is pleased, with
the support of our participating national member organizations, to
announce the USABat standard," said USA Baseball's executive
director/CEO, Paul Seiler. "Beginning with the launch in 2018, we will
take another step forward in making our game more uniform at the youth
level and ensuring the long-term integrity of the game."
Similar
to the NCAA and NFHS BBCOR standard, which helped to eliminate
discrepancies with different length bats and thus provide a more direct
measure of bat performance, the new USA Baseball bat standard will allow
youth baseball organizations in the United States to reach their goal
of establishing a wood-like standard, a standard that will provide for
the long-term integrity of the game.
There
will be no immediate change to youth baseball organizations' bat rules.
All bats, currently accepted for the respective leagues, remain
permissible through December 31, 2017. Each participating national
member organization will incorporate the new standard into their rules
for the 2018 season and will begin, with this announcement, to inform
their membership of the USABat standard.
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