NYSSWA: New York State Sportswriters Association

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Leading off today: New York City's new law banning metal baseball bats in high school games is being challenged in a lawsuit filed in Federal court.

A group billing itself as "Don't Take My Bat Away" contends that the law passed last month lacks scientific justification and is unconstitutional. They are represented by attorney David Ettinger, who also works for Easton Sports -- the country's leading metal-bat maker.

Ettinger is seeking an injunction from U.S. Southern District Court in Manhattan. The group he represents includes coaches, players and parents from New York City. The Public School Athletic League and the Catholic High School Athletic Association also oppose the new law. The PSAL alone has more than 100 varsity teams that would be affected by the ban next season.

City Council acted on the premise that balls travel faster off metal bats, increasing the injury risk for players. They had to override a veto by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Oddball no-hitter of the year: The Clarke baseball team got back-to-back no-hitters last week from Mickey Rogers in a 13-0 win over Carle Place on Tuesday and Sam Braverman in a 9-0 victory against Bethpage the next day.

That's fairly unique in itself, because few pitching staffs have that kind of depth, plus luck is sometimes the wildcard in any no-hitter -- a bloop single here, a hole opened up by a hit-and-run there, etc., and suddenly the no-hitter is a one-hitter.

The unique twist here is that Clarke (14-2) coach Tom Abruscato swapped out all eight of his position players after the fifth inning of Rogers' no-hitter, meaning that he was working with a makeshift defense behind him.

"When you throw a no-hitter, it really is a team accomplishment because the fielders have a hand," Abruscato told Newsday. "But what made it even more special was that we got a bunch of guys in who didn't start. We have confidence in all those guys."

Discrimination or deserved punishment?: There was a nice piece of reporting by Dan Herbeck in The Buffalo News this morning following up on the boys soccer program at Lackawanna High.

The district's school board acted earlier this year to disband varsity and JV soccer for at least one year because of numerous complaints about behavior during and after games. The situation came to a head with a particularly ugly outburst last fall after a playoff loss to Akron.

Herbeck reports that Lackawanna players feel they're being subjected to harsh treatment because they come from a community that was also home to "The Lackawanna Six" -- Yemeni men who trained in al-Qaida terrorist camps before the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

But the fact of the matter is that there's a long and documented list of complaints against Lackawanna's soccer teams in recent years, especially last season. In fact, Section 6 officials imposed their own one-year death penalty on the program and told the newspaper that they would consider even stronger action if the school district attemped to reinstate the soccer program this fall.

Extra points: There were no surprises Monday at the Horseheads school board meeting, which including an initial report on possible changes to the code of conduct that we mentioned in Sunday's blog. The administration wants any changes to the code to be in place by the start of fall practice.

9/11/24: Mass. school forfeits over male opponent

9/10/24: Regents table vote on expanding mixed competition

9/9/24: Shot clock experiment will change lacrosse

9/7/24: Garden City sets L.I. football record

9/6/24: Lawsuit takes aim at N.C.'s NIL ban

9/5/24: New York's Week 0 football intrigue