I'm trying a different panel this time, one that talks about technology in developing equipment. On the panel are Dr. Mike Caine of Loughborough U., Paul Litchefield of Reebok, Steve Solomom of Accrue Sports Entertainment Ventures, Dick Rugge of the USGA and Mike Leigh of the US Olympic Committee. Dr. Kim Blair of Sports Innovation Group LLC moderates.

Steve Solomon worked for the people who came up with the glowing puck, K-Zone, and the virtual first down lines in football.

Update: Rugge's job is to make sure technology doesn't overcome individual skill in golf.

Update: Mike Leigh made the point that technology helped older Olympians stay in the game and compete successfully.

Update: Mike Caine notes that we can now equip balls with chips that tell us more about what's going on in the game.

Update: Solomon notes that broadband allows low level sports (such as high school) to be available for viewing. In the aggregate, the market is huge, but it would never make it in the traditional broadcast market as a business.

Update: Leigh is looking for a way to get an edge in sliding events at the Olympics. You can't heat runners on sleds, so he's wondering if there is a way to transfer heat during the event. He's looking to bend the rules to get an edge.

Update: Dr. Caine used the term technological doping, that he sees as inflammatory.

Update: I got in a question, can technology replace umpires? Dr. Caine says yes, but thinks that human judgement is part of the game and should remain so. Leigh brings up the point that this technology can be used to help the umpire, for example, telling him that the ball was over the plate. Steve Solomon wondered, however, if fans really want strike zones called to the rule book.

Rumors on the Internets publishes the obscenity laced tirade one small bat manufacturer emailed to baseball over new bat regulations. The blogger takes an in-depth look at MLB's research on bats and how they appear to be trying to drive out the start ups in the bat business. A great post well worth the read.

New guidelines for bat manufacturers concern the slope of grain.

Maple bats will remain in use in Major League Baseball:

After a season in which jagged chunks of broken maple bats flew across the infield and into the stands in epidemic proportions, Major League Baseball will announce Tuesday that it will not ban the bats.

Instead, after consultation with foresters and bat manufacturers, baseball will adopt rules that enable players to use whatever grain of wood they like -- maple included -- but will provide specifications for bat design intended to minimize the number of bats that break.

That's good. I wonder if this will force players to use thicker handles?

Hat tip to 6-4-2.

Dex at Gaslamp Ball proposes a simple solution to the maple bat breaking problem.

An MIT graduate figured out how to make a wood bat that competes with aluminum models in durability.

It is made from 12 wedges that are combined with adhesive and clamping pressure. The result is that the outside of each wedge has a tight grain surface, guaranteeing the best hitting surface at every spot on the bat.

"The result is that it is very strong, and as a result of it being strong it is very safe," Dill said. "It is impossible for this maple bat to shatter in the way the maple bats shatter in the major leagues today. You will never have a barrel separating from the handle. The worst thing that can happen is a crack. There is a never a catastrophic break."

There is also no trampoline effect, Dill said. The ball does not jump off the bat.

The bat is expensive, but if it lasts longer and saves some people from injury, it just might be worth it.

Peter Abraham comes down clearly on banning maple bats, joining others in a growing chorus. This reminds me of something Bill James suggested as a way to improve the game. The league should standardize equipment. James suggested that everyone use the same size bat. Rather than individual models each bat would be built to the same specifications. This would prevent a player from gaining a technological advantage, and might also prevent what seems to be happening with maple bats.

Luke Scott gives Tyler Kepner a visual lesson on the sweet spot.

Sam Bats received a ringing endorsement from Mariano Rivera:

Several years ago, Holman was in Tampa to visit with one of his clients, Alfonso Soriano, the former Yankee. Holman, who usually talks with hitters, found himself in a conversation with Rivera.

Rivera said, "Sam... that bat is my enemy," Holman recalled.

Mariano is famous for breaking bats with his appropriately named cutter. I guess he can't break the maple sticks.

Via my lovely wife Marilyn, Bill Nye on why baseball bats break.

Mark Littell invented a new protective cup call the Nutty Buddy. I'm still in pain after watching the video, but the device does appear to offer complete protection.

BaseballGloves.com now sports a page that tells you the manufacturer of gloves for various major league players.

Kevin Kernan explores the reasons Little League is opposed to a ban on non-wood bats.

• More than 10 years ago, the major manufacturers of non-wood bats reached an agreement with Little League to limit their bats to a "Bat Performance Factor" (BPF) of 1.15. ... The BPF is essentially a measure of a non-wood bat's performance (how fast the ball exits the bat when hit) in relation to a standard wood bat's rating of 1.00. A very good wood bat's BPF is 1.15.

• That means today's best non-wood bats (usually made of aluminum) used in Little League perform statistically the same, in terms of how fast the ball exits the bat, as the best wood bats.

• For the last 10 years, bat manufacturers have only been producing non-wood bats for play in Little League that do not exceed the 1.15 BPF. Most of these bats are already printed with the BPF of 1.15, but beginning in 2009, all bats used in Little League Baseball must be imprinted with the BPF.

The article goes on to point out that even though the bats are swung faster than aluminum, the transfer of momentum is less. I personally like wooden bats better, since that's what you use in the pros. I understand the costs, however, but according to little leagues, injuries isn't one of them. The whole post is well worth the read.

I was hoping someone would attend the SABR meeting in Denver yesterday, and Dan Fox did. He pens this excellent report on the meeting, including information about the humidor, or the environmental chamber as the Rockies like to call it:

Finally, Walter Sylvester, who works in the Baseball Operations department for the Rockies, was introduced and opened the floor to questions from the group. In answering one question he noted that a sample of balls are tested when they come out of the chamber to ensure they still meet specifications with the ones that fail the test being used for batting practice. He also opined that he thought that eventually bats may come under the same scrutiny as baseballs and that he thought that the baseballs used in the bullpens by pitchers also come from the chamber (which makes sense since a pitcher warming up should use baseballs that are as close to those used in the game as possible).

Regarding the chamber it is his view that at the end of the day it really comes down to personnel. In fact and most interestingly, he seemed to lean more towards the position that the chamber shouldn't be used since it can and should be made to work to the Rockies advantage both on the field and psychologically (for example an ad for the firm 5280 in the visitor's clubhouse reminding the opposing teams of where they are). Although he wasn't asked about roster construction in those conditions (I did ask the question afterwards and he said he thought expanding the number of pitchers, for example, would be situational in terms of how the season was progressing) nor about the so-called hangover effect for Rockies hitters, he made the point that excellent pitchers such as Roy Halladay and Luke Hochevar have come out of Colorado and so it is possible to succeed at altitude with good players (of course the counter argument that the same rules don't apply at the high school and college levels wasn't addressed). To this comment he received a nice round of applause. He also cited the improved pitching of the Rockies in 2006 on the strength of Jason Jennings and Aaron Cook and not the chamber as most responsible for run scoring being down a bit at Coors.

Thanks for the reporting, Dan!

Major League Baseball ordered teams to keep their game balls at 70 degrees Farenheit this season:

The commissioner's office is telling teams for the first time that balls must be stored at a uniform temperature after they are delivered from the manufacturer.

"The specifications that Rawlings recommends are a 70 degree temperature and 50 percent humidity," baseball senior vice president Joe Garagiola Jr. said Friday.

It's the Coors effect:

The decision was made following debate generated by the Colorado Rockies' use of a humidor at Coors Field. The ballpark ranked first in the major leagues in scoring in its first eight seasons, starting in 1995, but dropped to second in three of the last four years behind Arlington's Ameriquest Field (2003), Cincinnati's Great American Ball Park (2005) and Kansas City's Kauffman Stadium (2006).

Colorado said in 2002 that it had installed the humidor. The Coors Field scoring average, which peaked at 15.0 runs per game in 1996, dropped to 10.7 last season, the lowest ever, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

There's going to be a meeting of SABR in Denver tomorrow discussing this issue. If any Baseball Musings readers go, feel free to write something up and send it in.

However, what happens when a team is playing in 40 degree weather in April? Is MLB concerned about shrinkage?

A company that specializes in imaging claims that 1998 balls were juiced, including the ball McGwire hit for home run #70.

"Examining the CT images of Mark McGwire's 70th home run ball one can clearly see the synthetic ring around the core - or 'pill' - of the baseball," UMS president David Zavagno said. "While Mark McGwire may or may not have used illegal steroids, the evidence shows his ball - under the governing body of the league - was juiced."

But Bob DuPuy, baseball's chief operating officer, said the core of the ball has been unchanged for decades. Rawlings has been the exclusive supplier of baseballs to the major leagues since 1977.

"All of our balls are subject to rigorous quality control standards and testing conducted by Rawlings," DuPuy said. "No changes have been made to the core of the ball through the entire time they have manufactured it."

Universal Medical Systems make veterinary scanners. If they have comparative pictures of 1998 and other baseballs, they should post them on the web so everyone can see.

Update: John Costello sent me an e-mail about this earlier today but it got dumped in my junk mail folder. He sends a link with images. However, there are no non-1998 balls for comparison.

Deadspin posts video of a robot hitter. I like the way it just tries to make contact.

Are you interested in getting into the bat making business? A premier bat making operation is for sale.

Popular Mechanics profiles Andy Byrnes, one of the people who manufacture the Sam Bat.

Kevin Mench's foot was bothering him. The answer: bigger shoes.

It's gotta be the shoes.

At least that's what hitting coach Brook Jacoby said is the main reason outfielder Kevin Mench is starting to pound the ball and collect RBIs in bunches. Mench's foot problems, which led to him missing five games, were partially a result of wearing shoes too small for his feet. He's now sporting spikes a ½ -size larger (12 ½ ) and hitting the ball farther.

"He couldn't keep weight on his back foot and pivot correctly, and now he can," Jacoby said. "That's the biggest difference."

This reminds me of the Mike Venafro story from spring training. Do players skimp on their playing shoes? I mean, if I were a player, I'd be paying for custom cleats that fit just right. Is it that they are so anxious to get freebies from the apparel companies that they don't bother to make sure the shoes are actually right for them? It seems to me that it would be worth it for a player to spend a few thousand dollars on proper footwear. It's an important part of their equipment.

The New York Daily News posts an article about Jorge Posada wishing to catch Randy Johnson, but the picture next to the article caught my attention. Posada is hitting off a batting tee that suspends the ball with jets of air. Way cool.

Update: The New York Times has a picture from a different angle.

This post made David Singer want to ask for clarification on who invented knobs on the end of baseball bats. If you can help him, leave on comment at his blog.

Jim Caple takes replicas of vintage bats to ballparks to see the reactions of hitters.

We gave our brother-in-law a 1927 Babe Ruth replica bat for his 50th birthday. It was heavy, but perfectly balanced. Just holding it made you feel like you could hit 60 home runs. But I agree with Caple's conclusion:

"The handle is the biggest thing that bugs me," Richie Sexson said. "It's so big and thick. I don't know how he used it. But I don't think they were throwing 95 miles an hour back then, either."

This was a frequent observation. Players would grab the bats, hold them, swing them, marvel at the thick handles and occasionally praise the balance. But they would also say that it was too heavy to swing in a game and that old-time pitchers couldn't possibly throw as hard as today's pitchers if batters were successful with such clubs.

I think they're right -- the bats go a long way toward explaining how different the game must have been -- but not everyone agrees.

It's good to see Nick Schulz back to blogging at Transition Game. He talks about new and improved softball bats in this post. It makes me wonder if they will eventually invent a wood composite bat (infused with carbon nanotubes, maybe) that performs like wood but is very difficult to break.

Jason Schmidt believes the baseballs they are using in spring training are bigger this year.

If the ball looked bigger to Schmidt at the plate, it also felt that way as he gripped it on the mound.

"It's not the same size," Schmidt said. "Every guy in here has said it. We play catch with (last season's) All-Star Game balls, and they're smaller. I don't know if the position players have noticed but we have"

Schmidt hypothesized that the dry air in Arizona might cause the balls to expand. He was curious whether pitchers in Florida have picked up on the difference.

"I can tell you I've noticed," he said. "When you're throwing 115 pitches every five days and playing catch every day, you notice."

Balls are allowed to vary in size, between 9 and 9 1/4 inches in circumference. (Rule 1.09). So the balls could very well be bigger, and still be legal balls.