An MLB maple bat resolution?

The Associated Press

NEW YORK _ Experts presented recommendations to baseball Friday that they hope will
decrease the frequency of broken bats in major league games.

The recommendations will be reviewed by Major League Baseball's safety and health advisory committee, which includes players' union officials.

"We'll be announcing something soon," baseball spokesman Pat Courtney said.

MLB collected more than 1,700 broken bats over 2½ months this year and met with manufacturers to discuss quality control after commissioner Bud Selig expressed concern over the increase in broken bats among maple models. Selig can't ban maple bats unilaterally because their use is subject to collective bargaining.

Baseball retained the USDA Forest Service's Forest Products Laboratory; the wood-testing agency Timberco Inc.; Harvard professor Carl Morris and University of Massachusetts-Lowell professor James Sherwood to analyze data and design tests.