Interesting article on the end of Ash bats.
For several years now, I have been aware of the Emerald Ash Borer, ("EAB") an invasive insect originally found in China. It has been making its way east from Michigan, where it was first noticed in roughly 2002, probably arriving in a used hardwood shipping crate coming from China to the United States via the Great Lakes shipping routes. It has probably killed over 100 million trees in the United States since it arrived. It is obviously present in the woods to which I play Lorax in western Pennsylvania.
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It isn't the end of wood bats. Maple is unaffected by the Emerald Ash Borer (but just wait until the Asian Longhorned Beetle gets loose...), so the wood bat is not going to die out anytime soon. Still, the prospect of the effective end of ash bats in baseball is very nearly upon us. It is not a possibility or something that "might" happen -- it is a drop dead certainty.
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It isn't the end of wood bats. Maple is unaffected by the Emerald Ash Borer (but just wait until the Asian Longhorned Beetle gets loose...), so the wood bat is not going to die out anytime soon. Still, the prospect of the effective end of ash bats in baseball is very nearly upon us. It is not a possibility or something that "might" happen -- it is a drop dead certainty.
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