Beetles threaten supply of ash baseball bats

By DON HOPEY
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Monday, July 23, 2007

At the BWP Bats factory in Brookeville, Pa., a one-story sheet metal-walled building roughly the size of a baseball diamond, hundreds of ash billets, solid 37-inch-long wood cylinders the diameter of fence posts, await their turn on the lathes.

Each cylinder will be shaved into the tapered shape of a baseball bat, then sanded, painted and lacquered to produce the kind of hitter's tool that, through more than a century of games, has filled the bat racks of the national pastime and launched countless baseballs into the sweet summer air.

But lately the strong blond hardwood has taken some knocks more damaging than a fastball on the trademark. First came aluminum bats in 1970, stealing most of the youth and softball markets. Then came Barry Bonds' long-ball success using hard maple bats, launching a swing toward the darker, slightly heavier and denser wood in the major leagues.

Now, already behind in the count, ash bats could be struck out by a tiny, green beetle from Asia.

The invasive emerald ash borer, which has killed more than 20 million ash trees in five states, was found last month for the first time in Pennsylvania, where most of the best, bat-grade ash grows.

The discovery in Cranberry, Pa. triggered an extensive, detailed, field survey that concluded that hundreds of trees in northern Allegheny and Butler counties are infested with the half-inch-long bugs. The survey also found strong evidence that the borers have been in the state undetected for more than a year and are spreading.

"The bug is definitely a threat to the ash population, and the whole bat industry in general would change if the ash is lost," said Mike Gregory, vice president of BWP Bats. BWP makes 40,000 bats a year, about 30 percent of them used in the major leagues by players such as the New York Yankees' Johnny Damon and the Minnesota Twins' Justin Morneau, the 2006 American League Most Valuable Player.

Although BWP uses hard maple to make about 80 percent of its bats, including those used by Damon and Morneau, the demand for ash bats is still strong because of their lower cost, Gregory said.. About 50 percent of major leaguers and an even greater percentage of minor leaguers still use ash bats, he said.

Industry giant Hillerich & Bradsby, which markets its bats under the Louisville Slugger brand, still uses ash for 80 percent of the 2.5 million bats it produces a year. The firm and its suppliers are watching the advance of the ash borer closely, said Rick Redman, a company spokesman.

"Our people get the northern white ash for our bats along the Pennsylvania-New York border, as has been the case for decades, and we are hoping its progress into that area will be arrested in some way," Redman said. "We're already making a lot of bats out of maple and some out of beechwood, and will continue to look at other kinds of wood too."

Brian Boltz, general manager of the Larimer & Norton wood mill in Russell, Warren County, one of three mills in Pennsylvania that Hillerich & Bradsby uses to produce ash billets for shipment to Louisville, said slowing the borer's progress through the state is probably the best that can be hoped for.

"I've talked to federal and state folks looking at the borer and neither had an optimistic view," Boltz said. "They really think the ash could be gone in the state, but they couldn't say whether that will happen in five or 10 or 15 years. But it could be gone."

The beetle is native to eastern Russia, northern China, Japan and Korea. It was accidentally imported into the United States in packing crates and was first discovered in Canton, Mich., near Detroit, in July 2002. It has since moved through Illinois, Indiana and into Canada, and been found in shipped nursery stock in Virginia and Maryland.

"We're not sure yet how the borer showed up here. Cranberry is along the interstate so the chances are firewood or cut logs were involved," Spichiger said. "But right now we have no absolute ground zero."

Boltz said his mill, 5 miles south of the Pennsylvania-New York border, gets about 25 percent of its ash from New York, and it's still unclear how the state quarantine will affect out-of-state suppliers. There's also concern that Pennsylvania suppliers, worried about a borer infestation of their woodlots, could flood the market.

Boltz said if the ash forests are lost, the bat market could turn to maple or some other wood to replace ash, but there are economic barriers. The going price for maple billets is three to four times the price of ash, a difference that has so far kept most of the maple in the hands of major leaguers.

Ironically, the threat to the continued production of ash bats comes at a time when many amateur baseball and softball leagues are moving away from metal bats and back to wood. New York City has banned aluminum bats for high school play, and Pennsylvania and New Jersey have been talking about similar aluminum bat bans for safety reasons. City and county sandlot leagues and over-30 baseball leagues are also turning back to wood in increasing numbers.

"The trend back to wood is there, but the ash supplies are being threatened," Boltz said. "A lot will depend on what we can do with maple and other woods."

No matter what, the crack of a bat on a baseball will never be the same.

Don Hopey can be reached at dhopey(at)post-gazette.com