Two of the new, safer bats sit in the dugout Monday evening at a game between East Hamilton High School and East Ridge High School held at Chattanooga State Community College. High School baseball teams have switched to new bats that are deemed safer and help prevent fielders from being at risk of getting hit by a line drive.NEW BBCOR DESIGNATIONBBCOR (Batted Ball Coefficient of Resolution). Instead of measuring the speed of the ball after it is batted, BBCOR measures the “bounciness” of the ball and bat, or the “trampoline” effect. Bat performance is specified by using the BBCOR, which for mathematicians is calculated using the inbound and rebound speeds of the ball.OLD BESR DESIGNATIONBESR (Ball exit speed ratio). The BESR is a number, once known, that allows one to determine the ball exit speed when the bat speed and the pitch speed are specified.
The pinging sound that had become so familiar from college to youth baseball fields is slowly disappearing. Although aluminum bats are the norm, new bats are sounding more like their wood predecessors still used by the pros.
That new bat, which carries a BBCOR designation, is closer to bringing back the crack of the bat.
“It’s closer to wood than others, sounds more like wood. The [old] aluminum bats made an obnoxious noise,” East Hamilton standout player Patrick Parris said.
“I’m still hearing it with some of them – certain brands like the Marucci, a couple of the Rawlings bats and the Rip It [bats],” Signal Mountain coach Bumper Reese said. “It’s nothing like you’d hear several years ago, and in order to hear that ping you still have to hit it solid.”