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The NCAA News -- March 1, 1999

NCAA appoints Gordon to chair panel on safety issues in baseball

Milton A. Gordon, president of California State University, Fullerton, has been named to head a special NCAA panel of independent scientists and experts to study risk issues in college baseball.

Gordon will chair the NCAA Baseball Research Panel, a seven-person group that includes experts in medicine, mathematics, research, physics, engineering and biomechanics, as well as the game of baseball. The group will meet March 11-12 in Indianapolis.

Created by the NCAA Executive Committee in January, the panel is charged to report and recommend to the NCAA Baseball Rules Committee and the Executive Committee specifications for baseballs and nonwood baseball bats, as well as future certification protocol.

To meet its charge, the panel is being asked to:

  • Review the evolution of this issue to date and receive input from interested parties;

  • Analyze current testing data, review current testing protocol, and request and review additional testing as deemed necessary (including field testing); and

  • Use solid wood bats as a benchmark and consider all available scientific data or learning regarding safe reaction times, effects of air resistance, ball COR (coefficient of restitution) and hardness on exit velocity, "work-hardening" of nonwood bats, batted-ball exit velocity and other factors that might influence the assessment of risk and the integrity of the game in terms of balance between offense and defense.

    Gordon, a member of the NCAA Division I Board of Directors, has been president at Cal State Fullerton since 1990. He has a Ph.D. from Illinois Institute of Technology in mathematics and is joined on the panel by:

  • Dr. James A. Ashton-Miller, research scientist in the department of mechanical engineering and applied mechanics and the department of biomedical engineering at the University of Michigan.

  • Dr. Michael M. Carroll, professor of engineering and retired dean of the school of engineering at Rice University.

  • Dr. Kenneth W. Johnson, professor of physics at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

  • Dave Keilitz, executive director of the American Baseball Coaches Association and former baseball coach and athletics director at Central Michigan University.

  • Dr. Richard A. Rasmussen, executive secretary of the University Athletic Association, a group of nine major research universities, and a former member of the NCAA Division III Management Council.

  • Dr. Bryan Wesley Smith, clinical assistant professor of pediatrics and orthopedics and head team physician at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and the incoming chair of the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports.

    "We are honored that these individuals have agreed to serve on this panel," Cedric W. Dempsey, president of the NCAA, said. "Clearly, the group provides the depth and breadth of knowledge and experience that the Executive Committee wanted for this important task.

    "All NCAA rules committees have a clear responsibility for minimizing risk and maintaining the integrity of their sports. Fortunately, college baseball has been a relatively safe sport. We want to keep it that way," Dempsey said.

    "No one can deny that the performance level of nonwood bats over the last 10 years or so has steadily increased," he noted. "The Baseball Rules Committee has wrestled with this performance increase meeting after meeting for a decade or more. Last summer, the committee made recommendations to minimize risk and to realign the balance between offense and defense. The work of the special panel will help the rules committee and the Executive Committee assess the effect of those recommendations and fine-tune them, if necessary."

    In January, the Executive Committee adopted two changes in nonwood baseball bat specifications for NCAA appoints Gordon to chair panel on safety issues in baseball the 1999 NCAA championships in all three divisions.

    The committee agreed that nonwood bats will not exceed 25/8 inches in diameter and that the difference between the length of the bat and its weight (not including the grip) cannot exceed three units (i.e., a 34-inch bat cannot weigh less than 31 ounces). For the regular season, the current specifications allow for a diameter of 23/4 inches and a length-weight difference of five units.

    In August 1998, the Executive Committee adopted recommendations from the Baseball Rules Committee for the new diameter and length-weight specifications, along with a third specification -- a 94-miles-per-hour batted ball exit velocity -- for regular-season and championship competition.

    The Executive Committee, however, delayed implementation of the new specifications until August 1999 to allow for additional testing and certification of bats.

    Dempsey said the panel will be asked to submit a report on its progress by July 1 for review by the rules committee and Executive Committee.

    The effective date of August 1, 1999, for all three specifications for regular- and postseason play remains in place.