Manufacturer of Baseball Bat Loses Lawsuit

As both a Louisville native and a softball player for many years, I think the whole thing is preposterous. The loss of the boy is tragic, but to capitalize on his death in a blatant attempt to reap monetary gain is wrong.

they are freaken` morons! $850,000!?!?!?!? WHAT THE HAY? I detest the idiots that go around suing people. Their son died, yes. It was a tragedy. But the don’t need to sue the company that made the bat! Why not sue the baseball manufacturer? Or the manufacturer of the bases? The Helmets? The person that hit the ball? Good grief. Holy crap. what a bunch of lazy people this country is becoming.

Amen bro. Lazy, immoral, and greedy. Those terms are generalizations though, and NOT directed at the Patches. I’ve never had any children, let alone lost one. Their grief must be interminable.

Whatever happened to common sense?

The real idiots are the 12 jurrors that awarded the money. Plaintiffs and lawyers are just reaping the rewards of our “jackpot justice” system we created. Remember that nothing can happen and noone can get a penny unless 12 of our peers (a jury) deem it to happen.

The current unfair tort system is so well funded that even Obama is afraid to suggest tort reform to lower the cost of health care.

Sock it to those greedy capitalists who have the audacity to create jobs that make people work for a living to line their pockets with profits.

Why didn’t they sue themselves? They bought the bat and drove him to the game. Aren’t they liable for involving their son in such a dangerous sport?

There’s a bit more to the story than just common sense. All sanctioning bodies in both baseball and fastpitch softball have regulations in place that mandate exit speed thresholds to manufacturers. In softball ASA (the governing body) is very diligent about enforcing bat speed regulations. The list of banned bats is updated regularly, and they even test legal bats at national tournaments and then confiscate any that are “too hot.”

So the real questions fro me are a) was the bat in question considered legal, and b) how diligent was the sanctioning body with enforcement?

If it was a legal bat, everyone would be better off if more scrutiny was placed on those responsible for setting the exit speed limits. Manufacturers will always build bats that perform as well as the limit allows. So if the the average exit speeds are infact faster than a human can physically react to, they need to be lowered.

I would hope that the parents would invest their new wad of cash in the achievement of that goal, because a simple sticker placed on the bat isn’t going to make any other players safer.

The entire premise for this suit is beyond absurd, and the previous post expounding on “exit speed threshholds” is nothing more than typical pseudo-scientific gobbledegook used to confound juries and
and rationalize idiotic lawsuits truly intended only to enrich the incredible number of ambulance chasers that pollute our courts.
Why didn’t they sue the batter for being too strong or for aiming for the pitcher? For that matter, why doesn’t the League ban batters who might hit that hard? Why wasn’t the family counter-sued for unjustly maligning the corporate good will of Louisville Slugger? Why wasn’t it thrown out of court by the irresponsible judge who should have dismissed it forthwith? There were more holes in this case than dimples on a golf ball.
The only result of this, should the case not be appealed and overturned, is that the price of bats, balls and other gear will double, just like that of ladders did some years ago when packs of lawyers made the ladder manufacturers the lawsuit scapegoats for a bunch of idiots who fell off of ladders while doing stupid maneuvers like standing on the top step or the paint platform. They still fall off because they’re oblivious to the multitude of safety sticker warnings plastered all over the ladders now. Probably the lawyers will be suing the schools for that soon, since the “victims” can’t read well enough!

A prime example of why tort reform in all areas of the law is overdue!

A wooden baseball bat works just as well as an aluminum bat when it comes to causing injury or death through being hit by a struck ball.

When I was in grade school 50+ years ago (long before the advent of aluminum bats) one of my schoolmates ‘disappeared’. Little was said about what had become of Charlie, but the story dribbled out that he’d been hit in the head by a struck ball. Scrambled his brains, it was said. Some time later there was an equally little mentioned memorial service. A short time after that the family moved away. Creepy stuff to a grade schooler. I don’t recall ever hearing anything about any lawsuits.

Today its surprising when the pitcher and batter are not brought to trial for criminal conspiracy to injure or murder when someone falls victim to a struck ball. Next thing you know the ticket seller will be on trial for aiding and abetting the operation of a blood sport!