Here's my quick two cents on maple bats. I've been putting off the topic because I was just hoping that it would go away. Unfortunately, it's not. It seems I can't listen to MLB on XM for more than 10 minutes without hearing some sort of commentary on the maple bat controversy swirling around baseball.

The quick version: I don't care.

But, I'll get into a little more detail...

This might come across as cold blooded, but I honestly don't care that umpire Brian O'Nora had to leave the game yesterday with a mild concussion and a bloody forehead. My reasoning is that not all the blame can be attributed to the type of wood Miguel Olivo was holding. Just as much blame can be place on O'Nora, in my opinion, because he chose to wear an umpire mask that basically hasn’t changed in oh, I don’t know, about 100 years? O’Nora didn’t adapt and change with the times to wear the more-protective hockey-style mask many umpires are now wearing behind the plate. And that’s his choice – but it’s just that, a choice. He chose comfort or tradition over more protection.

Baseball can be dangerous. If umpires are all of a sudden afraid of dodging bat barrels, they can forego the $120,000 starting salary and let Mike Muchlinski have a job. Or they can choose to wear a helmet in the field. MLB had no problem with John Olerud doing it and this year the basecoaches are required to wear helmets. No biggie. But MLB shouldn’t step in over a few broken bats.

It’s not an MLB-related problem, but I think amateur players continuing to use metal bats is a much bigger issue for the game in general. Kids die from the ball coming off of those at such high speeds. Brian O’Nora got a couple days off of work and a Band-Aid.