Something's wrong, very, very wrong!

I spent part of the last three days at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg watching the Devil Rays play host to the Red Sox. It was almost like being at Fenway except that there was a roof; there was no wall or Citgo sign, and it was comfortable. Fenway Park was not built for people 6'4" tall and 220 pounds. The Trop was. At least 75% of the fans were in some sort of Red Sox gear. The first night I sat next to 2 guys from Manchester, NH. Saturday night it was a couple from Holbrook, MA on one side and South Boston on the other. Sunday afternoon I was surrounded by a family from Pawtucket, RI. I live here in Florida now but I felt like I was right back home.

I digress and I apologize. My purpose in writing this is that there is something very wrong with the bats these guys are using. I have been telling my wife all year that I have never seen as many broken bats as often as I have this year. I don't mean cracked, where a player goes back to the dugout and gets a new one, but broken; sheared; shattered. I saw infielders pick up at least six pieces of wood from the field over the last three days. The most absolutely fantastic thing I have ever seen was Big Papi's bat come apart on a check swing. Not a foul ball, not a big rip but a check swing. The bat was in two pieces. All he had in his hand was the stump!

Am I the only one who has noticed this? Did I miss the article stating that all the ash trees in North America are affected with some brittle wood disease? Did Louisville Slugger lay off its entire quality control department? I retired not too long ago and have far too much time on my brain. Maybe this has been going on for some time and I just never noticed. I would appreciate any feed back.