Alabama Little League (Major Division – ages 9 to 12) has now required its teams

Question

Alabama Little League (Major Division – ages 9 to 12) has now required its teams to use corked bats instead of aluminum bats. It is thought that aluminum bats give an unfair advantage to older players and while high school and colleges also use aluminum bats, many players who transition to the minor leagues finds the transition difficult. Corked bats “bat” differently and as such, some players never find their “batting groove” so to speak (even though corked bats are illegal in MLB). There are even a few studies that indicate that the vibration from the aluminum bat might cause nerve and skeletal damage to a player’s wrist, arm, and shoulder. So starting this season, corked bats are required. This creates a potential problem, as corked bats are produced at only two production facilities, one near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and the other outside of Louisville, Kentucky. The cork is imported from Southeast Asia and Nigeria in Africa to a central location in Pittsburg, Kansas. Then, the Kansas location ships the materials via rail or truck to the respective plant locations based on the order. The rest of the production inputs are U.S.-based. Due to the near-immediate need for the bats (they also have to be distributed to 200+ teams in the state), decisions needs to be made about which plant the finished corked bats should be shipped from. Also, should they be shipped directly to each team or to a central point in Alabama and then transshipped from there to the 200+ locations in state? Describe what the production and cost functions might look like. How do shipping modalities and alternatives raise or lower the costs? How might managerial costs, average costs, and other costs fit into all of this? What did you decide and why?

Explanation / Answer

Sammy Sosa, the Chicago Cubs outfielder who introduced passion, vigour and a joie de vivre to memorable dwelling run races with Mark McGwire within the 1990's, was ejected last night at Wrigley area in Chicago when umpires determined cork in his shattered bat, which is unlawful.

With runners on 2nd and third within the bottom of the first inning, Sosa lunged at a low breaking ball in opposition to the Tampa Bay satan Rays, slapping a floor ball to 2nd base. The pitch broke Sosa's black bat in half. When the crew chief, Tim McClelland, and his three fellow umpires retrieved and examined the bat, McClelland ejected Sosa, having discovered brown cork on the bat's beige insides.

The Cubs' Mark Grudzielanek, who scored on the play, used to be sent back to third base as the run was once disallowed. The Cubs went on to a 3-2 victory.

McClelland, then a rookie, used to be the house plate umpire in the noted 1983 pine tar incident involving the Kansas city Royals' George Brett. McClelland negated a dwelling run Brett had hit, and Brett followed the ruling with a tantrum for the a long time.

McClelland talked about that incident the day gone by in describing what he saw in Sosa's bat. ''I became it over and there was a small, most often half of-buck-size piece of cork within the bat correct about midway down the barrelhead, i suppose,'' McClelland stated. ''It used to be notched in there. I felt it and it certainly was once cork, so I called the crew together, and it was once paying homage to what happened about two decades in the past with me.''

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Sosa, who hit his five hundredth career homer in April, didn't display any histrionics over the ejection.

He stood in the dugout and splashed a cup of water on his face, watching as if it had been any routine at-bat. However the incident will have several repercussions, including a suspension likely to be 7 to 10 days. Probably the most damage, nonetheless, might be the taint on a career that has been built on house run blasts.

Sosa said after the sport that he had used the corked bat by accident after utilizing it in batting follow to put on a show for the fanatics. He stated that his different bats had been taken and that none of them could be determined to have cork inside.

''I just wish to say that I first wish to say sorry to my teammates, the fanatics, and the commissioner of primary League Baseball,'' Sosa said after the sport. ''What occurred at present was once some thing that wasn't meant to have occurred. I took the wrong bat and that i went up there and it occurred. It's a bat I used for batting observe. It can be a mistake.
''I ask for forgiveness from the bottom of my heart. I guarantee to you, I on no account used some thing unlawful. I suppose dangerous and that i take the blame for it, and i need to transfer on.''

Cubs supervisor Dusty Baker said: ''Deep down, I believe like after I used to be a child and something had occurred at eight o'clock in the morning and my mom stated wait till your dad will get home at four o'clock within the afternoon. Makes for a protracted day.

''Deep down in my heart I believe Sammy did not know what was once down in there. I simply hope this occasion does not tarnish his profession and all that Sammy Sosa has accomplished for baseball and Chicago.''

Yankees supervisor Joe Torre said the incident was once a ''dirty mark'' on Sosa's profession ''whilst you remember what he is accomplished.''

''although he in no way used the cork earlier than that, you are not going to persuade individuals of it,'' Torre stated. ''it is quite unfortunate for the game. The primary part of the game is recognize for the people before you. It's embarrassing; he is too excellent of a participant. It is too unhealthy. That is a type of matters you do not enjoy, even though you're on the opposite staff.''

The important League Baseball rulebook states that a batter is out when he makes use of or attempts to make use of a bat that has been altered or tampered with to toughen its distance factor. It has been estimated that a batter can reap another 20 to 30 ft when utilising a corked bat. Since cork is lighter than the timber it replaces, a batter can swing the bat turbo, and the better the bat pace generated, the farther the ball can travel.

In 1987, Billy Hatcher of the Houston Astros received a ten-sport suspension for utilising an unlawful bat. Hatcher is the satan Rays' first base coach and used to be sitting in the dugout last night time when Sosa was ejected.

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