Mayor Bloomburg Statement re: NYC Legislation
April 3, 2007

Some people have asked me what I'm going to do about the City Council bill that was passed banning aluminum bats. I don't know whether aluminum bats are more dangerous or less dangerous. I've had friends, who are professional baseball players, call me and argue both ways. But I don't think that it's the city's business to regulate that. I think that those people running Little League teams or school programs should look and they're the ones who have the expertise and they should decide whether, of these bats are safe or not and make the decisions for their, for their leagues and their teams. But I don't think that the city has the expertise, the knowledge to get involved in every one of these decisions. And this is one that I will veto. And I would hope that the City Council sustains the, my veto, and, then, I hope that those that are running these teams will take a good, close look at it and use their expertise and do what's right for our kids. There are risks in everything. We want to reduce the risks as much as possible. We don't want to destroy tradition of the game. But that's up for people running the sports.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomburg, April 2, 2007, regarding the NYC Council bill banning the use of non-wood bats in youth leagues throughout the city.