As a year has gone by since you lost your son on the baseball field, I am quite confident that it still hurts everyday that Brandon is not with you. I hurt for you and for your family. I understand your concern and support you in regards to metal bats. In early January at the Georgia State coaches meeting for American Legion Baseball, our State Baseball Chairman made reference to your tragedy. Little did I know with the ESPN article that I would be putting a face with a name. My American Legion Junior Baseball Team, Post 251 just recently won the Georgia State Championship in late July of 2004. I am the Head coach of this team and I do understand your issue in regards to metal bats. Our first scheduled practice that we had as a team in late May could have brought on the same tragedy, but by the grace of God we had a young man who only suffered a broken nose and septum. As I read the article in ESPN Magazine, I couldn't help but realize how lucky we really were on that May night. Jonathan Chapman had taken the mound that evening to throw live batting, we were doing live drills all the way around the field. If a ball was hit, each player run it out and I was asking for 100% from each player that evening. After about 4 batters, Jonathan was struck directly in the face by a batted ball. He has played for me for the last 3 years and has always had very good reflex's on the mound. This is a 16 year old young man who had played hurt many times and is as tough as iron. That night he did not have enough quickness. As he was airlifted to Atlanta Medical Center I was praying that he would not have any serious life long problems after the accident as he was totally alert the entire time EMT's were working on him. Because he was able to speak and understand, that had somewhat eased my fears of a life threatening injury. Jonathan was able to return to the field around late June when we made a trip to Nebraska to play other Legion teams. I am quite confident that had we not been using aluminum bats, the accident would not had happened.
It is my opinion that aluminum bats drive the egos of youth and coaches at the high school and college levels. I do realize that athletic budgets also drive the use of metal bats. I have watched many young men play baseball and when you put wood in their hand, they struggle and are unable to duplicate the numbers and stats they would with metal. I am as guilty as the rest. my son uses aluminum himself, mainly in order to stay on the same competitve field as the other players. No, we did not go to wood after Jonathans accident, simply because we did not have the funds to purchase wood bats. The problem I stuggle with is ...Does it take 1 more or 15 more young men like your son to die on a baseball field to get laws passed to protect our kids and our national pastime.
I wish you all the best.
Terry Westenfeld
Head Baseball Coach
Legion Post 251
Acworth, Georgia