bat-tle lines

College baseball will change this season, probably for the better — though there are those who disagree. New bats are in play. The bats are still metal but they’ll perform more like wood than before. It’s a major change, from all accounts. “It’ll be a different ball game,” said Mississippi College coach Brian Owens. What you’re likely to see are fewer home runs and cheap hits. Owens said you’ll also see fewer runners scoring from first base on hits in the gaps, because the ball isn’t going to carry off the new bats like it did off the old ones. The first major change in bat standards occurred in 1999, and it made the college game better. Safety, of course, was the prime motivation behind both changes, but the by-product of this latest one, especially, is that more of a premium will be placed on pitching, defense and strategy. That’s a good thing, even if scoring is down. It’s not just offense that makes baseball so much fun to watch.