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High School baseball players are experiencing some frustrating and controversial news this week. On Monday, the NFHS (National Federation of State High School Associations) banned the 2020 Louisville Slugger Meta Prime 33’. This is the second ruling made for high school players this year concerning equipment requirements, the first being implemented on January 1st, which pertained to a protocol for NOCSAE certified chest protectors. 

NOCSAE Certified Chest Protector Requirement:

According to the National Operating Committee and Standards for Athletic Equipment, in their summary pertaining to the testing of the new chest protector technology, they stated “the standard test method describes the laboratory equipment and basic requirements pertinent to projectile testing using the NOCSAE Thoracic Surrogate. It is believed that compliance with the test method will lead to improved chest protector performance, thus a reduced risk of commotio cordis. The chest protector shall be supplied as offered for sale with required hardware and fitting instructions along with required accessories if any are required for the protector to function as designed.” 

The main concern deals with commotio cordis, which, according to Wikipedia is “an often lethal disruption of heart rhythm that occurs as a result of a blow to the area directly over the heart, at a critical time during the cycle of a heart beat.” 

All chest protectors made prior to 2019 do not have the certifications of NOCSAE, and are causing many teams across the U.S. to purchase a new chest protector for this season, including the Blue Devils here at Bellwood-Antis.

According to Baseball Monkey, “changes have primarily been made to the large section of the padding in the upper middle of the chest protector, in efforts to absorb and distribute impact to other parts of the chest protector, away from the heart. The main purpose of the rule update was to determine whether or not a chest protector can prevent commotio cordis as well as other, more minor injuries caused by impact to the torso. Therefore, chest protectors must go through a series of tests and trials to make sure that they can withstand a certain amount of force impact as dictated by NOCSE and SEI.”

The 2020 Meta Prime by Louisville Slugger:

As of March 2, 2020, the 2020 Louisville Slugger Meta Prime (-3) 33’ is illegal for use in all high school play. The bat has already been banned at the collegiate level earlier this year. No information can be found as to why the bat has been banned, but we all can assume due to previous bannings of bats, is due to the bats performance being more pristine than other bats. 

According to slugger.com, they have stated to “offer immediate assistance to players and families who own the 33’ of the 2020 Meta (-3) BBCOR bat. We apologize to all players impacted by this development, and we are committed to getting an industry-leading bat back in your hands as soon as possible.” 

Louisville Slugger is giving gift card cash equivalents with values according to the type of bat the consumer returns. These gift cards are redeemable at demarini.com, wilson.com, atecsports.com or evoshield.com. Below is how the cash values break down.

Meta (-3) $549.99

Custom Meta (-3) $599.99

Meta Gold (-3) $649.99 

As stated, these new requirements are nothing new for high school and collegiate athletes to face, as they are made out of the protection for the player, and will ensure safer and fair play from this point on. So as the season begins, players will have to make a few adjustments before stepping on the diamond.