Wooden bats reborn in amatuer baseball

NEW ULM -- If you were in attendance at Sunday's New Ulm Brewer-Leavenworth amateur baseball game at Johnson Park, you probably left the park with a little smile on your face.

It was probably not because the Brewers opened the season with a 7-1 win, but in all likelyhood it was because the game marked the rebirth of the wooden bat in amateur baseball. And for all you people who are interested in firsts, the first hit in the second wooden bat era came from Leavenworth's Adam Armbruster when he punched a single to left field.

I could have used the term "rocketed' or "blasted" or even "tatooed" in describing Armbruster's base hit. But I think that with wood bats now in play, those terms may well be hyperbole. Right now, nothing that is hit with a wood bat garners those kinds of descriptions.

You see, with the exceptions of Armbruster and Leavenworth Manager Jeff Cook, none of the players on both teams have ever used a wood bat in a game.

"I didn't do anything different at the plate," said Brewer leftfielder Todd Hoffmann who collected two hits in the game. "The sweet spot is smaller on the wood bat than it is on the aluminum bat. It was weird -- it will just take a little time for the players to get used to them."

What also appeared out of place was the depth of the outfielders for both teams.

"You saw how shallow they were playing," Hoffmann said.

For the record, the outfielders were playing deeper in the Minnesota Valley Lutheran-Sleepy Eye high school game on Monday than they were in Sunday's contest. The outfielders in the amateur game were almost 15 feet in farther than the outfielders were in Monday's high school contest, which was still played with the aluminum bat.

"With the aluminum bat, thet game is a 15-6 game," said Hoffmann. "It will take three hits to score a run with the outfield playing as shallow as they were. And I am sure that the pitchers will learn to throw inside more than they would with aluminum bats."

Hoffmann added that the game of baseball "will become more of a game of fundamentals. (Sunday) we laid down three bunts and last year, it probably took all season for us to lay down three bunts.Teams are going to have to become more fundamentally strong on defense."

Oriole manager Jeff Cook, who did play with wood bats in the early 70's before the switch went to aluminum, said that it was "exciting to watch. It wasn't wild watching the ball go over the fence and up against the fence all the time."

Again, for the record, there was only one ball that was really hit good and that was by Hoffmann on his double in the seventh inning.

"It was a lot different, for sure," Cook said. "We have played one or two wood bats games the past few years with wood bats. But then, wood bats were not very good. The players have accepted the fact that this is what we are going to do - the ball doesn't fly like the hitters want it to."

Cook said that hitters do not have to relearn how to hit with the wood bat but rather hitters have to re-learn what pitches to lay off. "You can end up with a broken bat (there were only two in the Brewer-Leavenworth game; one coming on a groundball out and the other coming when a batter hit the ground with his bat after missing a pitch) or a groundball to the pitcher. You have a smaller sweeter spot on the bat - now instead of going for the home run, you are trying to get the ball over the infield."

And Cook, like Hoffmann, agrees that fundamentals - which were lost in the aluminum bat era - will become as important as a strong pitching staff to a team's success.

"Defense - big time. Defense lacks a lot around here in amateur baseball from what I have seen."

While some players think that taking the aluminum bat out of the game is like taking the three-point shot out of basketball, Cook feels that the wood bat brings back excitement to the game..

"It puts excitement back into the game -- it gives the game back to the pitcher again. The pitcher had to have three or four pitches with the aluminum bat to try and fool the batter some way. With the wood bat, the pitcher can go back to pitching the corners and feeling safe."

Cook said that most pitchers have only pitched against aluminum bats.

"I like it," said Leavenworth pitcher Randy Armbruster. "Now, you can pitch inside and get away with it with the wood bat. The weak spots on the wood bat are the same as the aluminum bat but with the aluminum bat, the hitters still got a hit."

Armbruster said that at first he was cautious about how much difference the wood bat would make. "The wood bats that we have now had more life in them than the ones we used before so I didn't know if there was going to be much difference or not. But when it came to be, there is quite a bit of difference. You get a lot of these dead groundballs."

Armbruster said that he feels that the idea (of the Minnesota State Amateur Baseball Board) that the wood bats were brought in for protection "was an idea that I didn't buy. I think that is simply makes the games closer and quicker. Games in the past were getting out of hand ‹ I think that people wanted to go to games that lasted 3 1/2- 4 hours (the game Sunday lasted 2 hours and 15 minutes) and you have scores of 20-15.."

"The bunt is much bigger -- you will need teams use more strategy. Now you play for that one run in the fifth or sixth inning. The runs will be held down a lot. But it is nice for a pitcher."

Armbruster said that hitters came back to the dugout sometimes shaking their heads after making an out. "They just said 'Wow, that would have been a hit last year."

It is obviously to early to make a judgement on the wood bat. But it will be fun to watch the game of baseball now with the fundamentals -bunting, stealing, hit-and-run- coming more into play than ever before.

And it will be interesting to see if the same teams that normally make it to the state tournament now will with the wood bat.

I would like to hear from managers in the Tomahawk East League as to their comments on the wood bat. You can call me at 354-7063 or fax The Journal at 597-359-7362.

MORRIS APPLIES TO UMAC: As you read yesterday, the University of Minnesota-Morris has made a formal application to join the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference of which Martin Luther College is a member.

"I think this gives our conference a nice compliment and that we are showing stability and a good conference that schools want to compete in," said MLC Athletic Director Jim Unke who is also the Commissioner of the UMAC. "It really helps our conference. They also bring an all-important football team in that will fill Mount Scenario's void and will put our expanded football conference back into balance."

Morris will be a member of the UMAC, if accepted, in all sports.

"Morris has a nice, solid athletic department and is an instituion that has high academic standards which fits in with all the other colleges in the UMAC. They would be the first public school in the UMAC. I believe that it will be a good fit for everybody."

Unke said that their is "little chance that Morris' application will not be accepted. They have been at our last two (conference) meetings and they understand how we function."

Unke went on to say that the time-table for Morris' admission "has not been set. I am not sure how soon the Northern Sun (Intercollegiate Conference) will release them. There is then a year's probabtion in the UMAC before they become full conference members."

One of the things that Morris will have to adjust is their scholarships. As a D-II college, they did offer scholarships where as UMAC does not offer any scholarships.

"They did not offer a lot of (athletic) scholarships and that is what got them in trouble in their conference," commented Unke. "The UMAC is a non-schoiarship conference - that is something that Morris has to addressed. Whether they just don't offer new scholarships and let the scholarships run through as they graduate. That is what Northland College did."

EXPANDED FOOTBALL CONFERENCE FOR UMAC: Unke said that starting next fall, the UMAC will have a North and South Division in football in the expanded UMAC football set-up.

"The North is one team short now (with Mount Senario's departure) - we have Martin Luther, Northwestern, Crown and Trinity in the North with Marantha, West Minster (Fulton, Missouri), Blackburn, Principia and Rockford. The south goes all the way down to Missouri."

Unke said that the two number one teams in each division will play at the Dome for the UMAC Championship-two will play two, three will play three- etc.

"There will be some cross-over play," he said. "This fall, we will be playing Principia (Elsah, Illinois) and Blackburn (Carlinville, Illinois). So once every six years, we have to go to Fulton, Missouri."

"This is exciting for the UMAC and us," Unke said."We have established ourselves as a solid conference and it bodes well for us in the future."