Bill Text: CA AB7 | 2009-2010 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Interscholastic athletics: High School Baseball Safety
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-0)
Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2010-08-31 - To inactive file on motion of Senator Pavley. [AB7 Detail]
Download: California-2009-AB7-Amended.html
BILL NUMBER: AB 7 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 11, 2010
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 7, 2010
AMENDED IN SENATE JANUARY 4, 2010
AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 17, 2009
AMENDED IN SENATE JULY 14, 2009
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 14, 2009
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 6, 2009
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 27, 2009
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Huffman
( Principal coauthor: Senator
Romero )
( Coauthors: Senators
Alquist and Leno )
DECEMBER 1, 2008
An act to add and repeal Section 35179.4 of the Education Code,
relating to interscholastic athletics.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 7, as amended, Huffman. Interscholastic athletics: High School
Baseball Safety Act of 2010.
Existing law gives the governing board of a school district
general control of, and responsibility for, all aspects of
interscholastic athletic policies, programs, and activities in its
district, and requires the governing board to ensure that all
interscholastic policies, programs, and activities in its district
are in compliance with state and federal law.
Existing law prohibits participants in high school interscholastic
football from wearing football helmets that are not certified for
use by the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic
Equipment or another recognized certifying agency in the field.
This bill would enact the High School Baseball Safety Act of 2010.
The bill would express findings and declarations of the Legislature
regarding the safety implications of the use of nonwooden bats in
high school baseball. The bill, until July 1, 2014
January 1, 2012 , would prohibit the use of a
nonwood nonwooden baseball bat at a private or
public high school competitive baseball game or practice or during a
physical education class or activity conducted at a private or public
high school.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. This act shall be known, and may be cited, as
"the the High School Baseball Safety Act of
2010.
SEC. 2. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) On March 11, 2010, 16-year-old Gunnar Sandberg, a pitcher for
Marin Catholic High School in Marin County, was struck in the head by
a line-drive hit from a metal bat, and suffered severe head injuries
that required emergency brain surgery.
(b) The recent tragedy involving Gunnar Sandberg is not an
isolated incident. In recent years, there have been numerous
incidents of serious injury and even death involving baseball
pitchers who were struck in the head by balls hit with metal bats.
(c) Historically, and continuing to the present day at the
professional level, baseball has been played with wooden bats.
Beginning in approximately the 1970s, aluminum bats began to appear
as a popular alternative to wood wooden
bats, and in recent years nonwooden bats have become commonplace at
these levels of competition. Advances in baseball bat design,
including the materials and technology used, have resulted in bats
that far outperform traditional wood wooden
bats.
(d) There is substantial evidence that baseballs struck with these
advanced nonwooden bats travel at faster velocities, leaving
pitchers less time to respond to balls that are hit at them and
increasing the likelihood of serious injury. In 2009, the
NCAA National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)
enacted a moratorium on the use of composite barreled bats
until 2011. According to the National Collegiate Athletic
Association (NCAA) NCAA , this moratorium is
necessary to protect the integrity of the game and to enhance the
safety of the studentathletes student
athletes .
(e) In California and throughout the country, there are growing
concerns that these advanced nonwooden bats present an unacceptable
safety risk to pitchers. These concerns are especially acute at the
high school level. Many members of the baseball community, as well as
independent experts, have called for a ban on nonwooden bats. Some
also suggest that protective headgear for pitchers should be
required.
(f) In response to the Sandberg tragedy, the Marin County Athletic
League voted on March 25, 2010, to suspend the use of nonwooden bats
for the rest of the 2010 baseball season, and called on other high
school athletic officials to do the same.
(g) A statewide moratorium on the use of nonwooden bats in high
school baseball for three years one year
is an appropriate precautionary measure. The sport of baseball
will not be harmed or compromised by the use of traditional
wood wooden bats during this period. It is the
intent of the Legislature that, during this three-year
one-year moratorium, sports officials and
members of the baseball community should actively consider and
evaluate strategies to ensure player safety, including, but not
limited to, the materials and performance standards for baseball bats
and the possibility of protective headgear.
(h) The Legislature notes that nonwooden bats are prohibited at
the major and minor league levels, and baseball is a game of
traditions, which suggests that consideration should be given to
whether the use of nonwooden bats is consistent with the traditions
and highest standards of the game.
SEC. 3. Section 35179.4 is added to the Education Code, to read:
35179.4. (a) A nonwood nonwooden
baseball bat shall not be used at a private or public high school
competitive baseball game or practice or during a physical education
class or activity conducted at a private or public high school.
(b) This section shall become inoperative on July 1, 2014, and, as
of January 1, 2015, is repealed, unless a later enacted statute,
that becomes operative on or before January 1, 2015, deletes or
extends the dates on which it becomes inoperative and is repealed.
(b) This section shall remain in effect only until January 1,
2012, and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted
statute, that is enacted before January 1, 2012, deletes or extends
that date.
