WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!
The family of a Brandon Patch won a lawsuit against a baseball bat maker for $850,000, because they didn't warn people that baseball bats are dangerous (!) and that they were the cause of Brandon Patch's death, when he died from being hit by a ball that was hit by Hillerich & Bradsby's aluminum baseball bat.
Um, hold it.
So... basically this family argues that aluminum baseball bats make baseballs travel so fast that people don't have time to react? I don't know if this family has noticed, but every friggin baseball bat maker in the world sells aluminum baseball bats! And so they didn't warn people that it can cause balls to travel at a high speed? Do you really need to? It's fucking common sense! This is dumber than that coffee lawsuit a few years ago involving McDonald's.
And what does this mean? A wooden bat won't do the same thing? A wooden bat won't cause a bat to travel insanely fast? This is insane. They might as well sue the company that makes the baseballs for creating the evil weapon that killed their son. This family is just trying to milk their son's death for personal gain. A normal, rational, functioning human would not sue someone because the company wrongly assumed that every person had at least a bit of common sense, which this family very apparently does not have.
What the hell is up with the world, anyway?

Hello appeals court? Yea you need to come and fix this stupid judgment. Thanks. :)

Money, greed, and stupid courts that tend to award such decisions and protect criminals who get hurt by their victims.

World's becoming a difficult place to live in.

Yeah, tell me about it.

Not that I agree with the lawsuit, but the notion is that aluminum bats do provide more punch to a hit ball than wooden bats. Which is true. Give a hitter a wooden bat. Pitch a ball right down the plate to him, let him hit it. Give that same hitter an aluminum bat and throw him the same pitch. Assuming he hits the ball at the same angle, the hit -will- go farther, and -will- travel faster.
According to the article, this is the point that the people who were suing wanted to get across. That aluminum bats are unsafe for use because of this fact.
Now what bothers -me- about this is that the original reason (if I remember correctly) that we were forced to use aluminum in Little League and not wood is because aluminum bats don't crack, don't splinter, etc. Use a wood bat long enough, and eventually, SNAP! And suddenly you have flying debris winging at your third baseman or whipping back through the catcher's facemask.
An aluminum rod won't do that, and so it was deemed "safer."
Yes, the ball got hit farther, went faster, but to the point where you couldn't react to it? Well, no, not really. From what it sounds like, this kid was on the pitcher's mound, he threw a pitch and the batter line drove it right into his head. From the sound of it, it was just a very unlucky and tragic accident, and even if it'd been a wood bat, if a batter connects with a ball and sends it RIGHT BACK WHERE IT COMES FROM, you're just always going to have a hard time getting out of the way, no matter what. That's only 90 feet from pitcher's mound to the plate, and that's why if you're on that mound, you're drilled to friggin' DUCK because you're always supposed to expect that ball to come flying right back at your head every single pitch you throw.

Anyone fancy terraforming our own planet?

As long as it involves nuclear weapons I am all for it...Fallout 1 + 2 ...HERE I COME!
Also, I get to ride the first nuke down like Slim Pickens!!

Yes, but the thing is that it won't be that much of a difference in speed and whatnot, even if it does go faster, farther, whatever. But does this warrant a warning? Common sense dictates that any sport is dangerous, and that baseball bats usually mean something bad will happen if you don't watch out.

Hmmm, was the kid wearing a helmet ?? Yeah, I know, that involves common sense and all that...

Agreed.

Exactly. Like I said, I don't agree with the lawsuit. I, too think it was a waste of time and money. I was just trying to clarify what I believed were their reasons for filing it in the first place and showing that they did, at least, have something of a coherent argument. I don't -agree- with that argument, but it's not just "OMG OUR SON IS DEAD GIEF US MONEYS!"

I smell a Darwin Award in the making....

The person I REALLY feel sorry for is the kid that hit the ball. He wasn't trying to hurt anyone, he was just playing what most would say is a fairly safe game, yet he'll have to live with the fact that the ball he hit killed another child. That's only going to be harder to live with as he grows up.