"Maple tends to blow up," explained Louisville Bats third basemen Michael Griffin, "Those are the ones you see flying out on the field."

A bat tends to break along the grain of the wood. The grain on traditional ash bats runs the length of the bat, so when a bat breaks, it fractures, but is not likely to become shrapnel.

The grain of a maple bat, however, is shorter and can run from side to side of a baseball bat, increasing the chances of a bat breaking into several pieces.

"At some point the player is in jeopardy possibly, or the fan, so yeah it's a concern for us," said Chuck Schupp, the manager of Professional Bat Sales for Hillerich & Bradsby's Louisville Slugger, "but the whole reason maple is here is that's what the player's market asked for nine years ago."

Louisville Slugger is lending its expertise as MLB studies the safety of maple bats. Though official statistics are not recorded on broken bats, there appears to be an alarming increase in broken bats, increasing dangers mainly to players.

Baseball writers say Selig is "strongly considering eliminating the (maple) bats."

But Louisville Slugger says if Major League Baseball bans maple bats, it would take more than a year to get enough ash wood into production. That's because approximately 60% of MLB players now use maple bats.

"The maple bats safety issue is very real," Selig said. "Putting up [nets] is not a solution. The people the most vulnerable are the ones on the field and in the dugout. That's the problem we should address -- what's causing it and what can we do about it."

Safety nets would have probably prevented a serious injury suffered by a 7 year old boy attending his first baseball game at Wrigley Field earlier this month. Dominic DiAngi's skull was fractured and had swelling around the brain after he was struck by a line drive foul off the bat of Cubs pitcher Ted Lilly.

"Honestly, that's a problem the game has had for 130 years," Selig said. "But you don't want to do something that obscures the view of the fans, which causes a major problem."