Easton and the CWS

EASTON CWS NEWS
July 2, 2008 -- The contact was as pure as the swing. The ball popped off Ryan Peisel's bat and sailed for center field. Peisel was thinking home run - better yet, season-saving grand slam."When I hit it, there was no doubt in my mind it was a home run," he said.In any other college ballpark, he was right. But at Rosenblatt Stadium, with flags drooping, it was an inning-ending, bases-loaded flyout to the warning track.Peisel has replayed that moment since last week's loss to Fresno State in the finale of the national title series. He's wondered that if he'd been swinging a bat from Fresno State's rack, would the ball have carried over the wall? If Georgia wasn't forced to use Nike bats, would Georgia be reliving a championship season today instead of reliving its collapse in Omaha, Neb.?Georgia athletic director Damon Evans made the right choice Wednesday by agreeing in principle to sign Georgia coach David Perno to a new five-year contract.Now, it's time Evans and his administration re-examines Georgia's all-sports contract with the most powerful sporting goods store in the world - Nike.Georgia was an Easton baseball school until it signed a lucrative contract with Nike after the 2004 baseball season.The contract stipulates that all Georgia sports teams must wear Nike apparel and use Nike equipment if it's available. Baseball bats included.But two things became crystal clear last week in Omaha. First, Fresno State was the better team for the final two games against Georgia and deserved the championship. Even Peisel acknowledges that.Secondly, though, Georgia and other all-Nike schools, such as North Carolina and Miami, are at a technological disadvantage when it comes to college baseball. Not only do Nike's bats seem as durable as matchsticks, they seem like toothpicks compared to their bazooka-like counterparts in the market. Easton, TPX (Louisville Slugger) and DeMarini seem so far ahead of Nike's bat development, it remains to be seen if the shoe giant can ever catch up.With Gordon Beckham, the nation's co-leader in home runs, Georgia hit 96 homers this season, which was second most in school history. Georgia hit none at Regions Park in Hoover, Ala., during the SEC Tournament and hit just four at Rosenblatt Stadium. Those are two spacious, professional ballparks where the glaring difference between Nike's product and the rest of the metal bat world shows up. The alleys are wider and deeper. The walls are pushed back.Including Beckham, who hit two homers in Omaha, Georgia had five hitters with the potential to hit home runs in those ballparks. Conversely, Fresno State had home-run potential throughout its lineup because of its Eastons. From Danny Muno, its tiny, freshman leadoff hitter, to its No. 9 hitter Jordan Ribera, a .186 hitter before the CWS who hit two of Fresno State's 14 homers, size and consistency didn't matter for Fresno State. Only thing that mattered was the Eastons its hitters wielded."It seems like you're going into a boxing match with one arm tied around your back," Peisel said.Georgia's players were hoping that North Carolina, a fellow all-Nike school, would make the championship series because the bat would've been a non-factor, Peisel said. To refresh, North Carolina lost consecutive national title series to Oregon State, a DeMarini school. Georgia also knew Fresno State had been armed with Easton's new composite bats, which were introduced to the market in early April. Composite bats are a marriage of metal and carbon-fiber technology.Since the composites' introduction, Georgia had been 5-9-1 against Easton schools, including LSU, Florida, Alabama and Ole Miss. Those schools are Nike schools for football and basketball, but have no all-encompassing contract with the manufacturer that forces them to use its bats."It drives me nuts when I see somebody wearing Nike cleats and swinging Easton bats," Peisel said. "It's the best of both worlds. Everybody knows Nike cleats are the best and everybody knows Easton bats are the best."Nike unveiled a white-colored composite bat early in the season, but only Georgia's Matt Olson started using it midway through the season. He went 3-for-29 in Omaha and flew out to right for the series-ending out."We talked to some of the Miami players in Omaha," Peisel said. "Nike wanted Miami to swing the (composite) bats and they refused."Peisel estimates that more than 60 of Georgia's bats broke this season. They either cracked or the plastic tops popped off. During his first batting practice session in Omaha almost three weeks ago, Peisel broke three bats in about 10 minutes.Peisel used the same style of Nike bat for three years at Georgia. Only the paint scheme changed. He, along with Beckham, have moved on to the professional ranks where maple or ash is mandatory.They won't have to deal with Nike's bat grip on Georgia anymore. The players they left behind - the ones still at Georgia and the ones to come - shouldn't have to either.John Kaltefleiter is the sports editor of the Banner-Herald. Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on 07.03.08.