On July 25, 2003, 18-year-old Brandon Patch was pitching for his American Legion team in Montana, the Miles City Mavericks. Patch threw a pitch and, according to witnesses, never had a chance to get out of the way of a line drive hit at him off an aluminum bat. Patch was hit in the head, suffered devastating head injuries, was taken to the hospital – and died just a few hours later.TRIAL UNDERWAY
This past week, in state court in Helena, Montana, the case against the maker of that bat, Hillerich & Bradsby (better known as Louisville Slugger), proceeded before a jury of twelve men and women. Attorneys for the plaintiffs, the family of Brandon Patch, essentially took two trial days to present their case and rested their case this past Wednesday.
The essence of the case, according to the plaintiffs, is that Brandon Patch simply had no time to react, had no time to get out of the way or do anything to protect himself from a ball that was catapulted off an aluminum bat. According to an AP article written by Brock Vergakis, Patch’s teammate that terrible day, first baseman Kevin Roberts, testified that “[i]t was just so quick. Everything happened so fast.”
The Patch family attorney, Joe White, exclusively told Kallas Remarks this past Friday, two days after resting his case, that “we feel real pleased with how the evidence is going in. We feel pretty good about the way the case is going and we hope that the defendant’s bat is found to be defective in design.”
AND THAT’S THE CRUX OF THE CASE
One of the main issues in the case is whether anyone could have known that this bat could be so dangerous. Joe White is quoted in the AP article as saying “[t]here is absolutely no warning anywhere … that this bat can create a situation where a pitcher is defenseless.”
DEFENDANT’S MOTION TO DISMISS
At the end of the Patch family’s case, defendant’s attorney, Rob Sterup, made a motion to dismiss the entire case. According to the AP article, Sterup argued before Judge Kathy Seely this past Wednesday that “[t]his bat did what was expected of it. There is no showing it did anything different.”
Judge Seely denied the motion to dismiss and the defendant is putting on its case.
THE CRUX OF THE NATIONAL DEBATE
To some degree, in this writer’s opinion, defendant’s counsel really crystallized the national debate on aluminum bats. There have been some loud voices for many years (such as WFAN’s Rick Wolff on his youth sports show, The Sports Edge) who believe (as does this writer) that the aluminum bats of today, in and of themselves, are too dangerous and can maim, severely injure and even kill young baseball players.
It’s started a national debate and the Patch case will gain national attention in the coming week. This will bring the issue of aluminum bats to the forefront and, depending on the jury’s verdict, could very well start to sound the death knell for allowing our children to use these bats and be put at risk for serious injury.
The campaign is already underway with such people as legislator Jim Oddo of Staten Island, who sponsored a bill banning the use of aluminum bats in New York City high school games. After much debate, the bill passed and the reaction, two seasons later, has become much ado about nothing – the games go on, the kids learn to hit with wood and baseball is a better – and safer – game today in New York City high schools.
BRETT V. LOUISVILLE SLUGGER
There’s already been a case where Louisville Slugger was held liable by a jury for damages to a kid who was hit in the head and suffered severe injury from a ball hit off an aluminum bat. In that 2002 case, which received very little attention, a federal jury awarded young Jeremy Brett $150,000 in damages for his injuries. Louisville Slugger did not appeal and paid the judgment.
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