Hitting against the grain

Kevin Oklobzija • Staff writer • July 10, 2008 There's a beautiful noise resonating from area baseball diamonds this summer, a one-and-only audible sensation that is truly music to the ears of baseball purists. The thwaaap of a wooden bat hitting a baseball. While nearly every organized association below the professional level uses metal bats, Monroe County American Legion League has gone back in time to ash and maple. "It sounds like baseball. It sounds like the major leagues, like (ESPN's) Baseball Tonight," said Julian Radney, a 2007 School of the Arts graduate who plays for Ira Jacobson Post 474. Monroe County Legion games resemble real baseball, too. Instead of just trying to bash a ball to the gap, which often isn't a difficult task with aluminum or new-fangled composite bats, players bunt, hit-and-run and hit to the... [read full story]