Hughto surprised Wellesley switching to metal bats

The Globe has  followed up on our recent post about Wellesley Little League switching from wood to metal bats, and includes a quote from Rick Hughto, whose son Bill was struck by a ball hit off a metal bat during a Wellesley High game a few years back and was seriously injured.

“[Aluminum] bats hit the ball harder, so those kids are in greater peril,’’ said Richard Hughto, an environmental consultant from Wellesley. “They’re deciding to put some kids in danger so some kids can get more hits . . . [With aluminum bats,] players will hit the ball more often and the good hitters will hit it that much harder’’ toward the pitcher’s mound, which is 46 feet from home plate as opposed to 60.5 feet from home in professional baseball.

Meanwhile, readers voting in our unscientific online poll about the Little League move are generally against the move (as of Nov. 25 anyway).