Over the last three weeks, every bat in Major League Baseball that has shattered, chipped, cracked or smashed during a game has been collected so that it can be analyzed, part of a continuing heightened effort to deal with the safety concerns caused by the proliferation of broken bats.
In addition, Major League Baseball has also enlisted some eclectic new consultants â?? a wood research institute at the University of Wisconsin and a statistician at Harvard â?? as it tries to develop a better understanding of why so many bats are breaking and what can be done about it.
Major League Baseball has now worked out a consulting agreement with Forest Products Laboratory, an institute at the University of Wisconsin that was established nearly a century ago by the United States Department of Agriculture.