Filed under: Cubs, MLB Injuries
If the proponents of banning maple bats were hoping that Tyler Colvin would become a figurehead for their crusade after he was impaled by a maple bat shard and suffered a collapsed lung, they're out of luck. Colvin is feeling much better two weeks after the incident, but he told the Chicago Tribune that he's not going to stop using maple bats and he doesn't expect a ban, either, though he expects baseball to keep looking into the bats to reduce the number that shatter the way the one that impaled him did.
Of course, baseball says that they've reduced the number of shattered maple bats by about 50% over the last two years and the Colvin incident still happened. He's the only player to be seriously injured, though Pirates' hitting coach Don Long got some serious facial cuts from a bat last year and there have been several other close calls this year. Which is to say that there might be fewer bats breaking, but that doesn't stop the bats that still break from hurting people.
In any case, the good news from the Colvin interview today is that even though he's not allowed to fly to be with the Cubs as the season ends, he's allowed to start jogging again and is breathing much easier now, literally. Players will probably still be using maple bats when he returns to the field next spring, but hopefully baseball will do something over the winter to ensure that an injury like his can't happen again.
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