The Marshall players gathered around their coaches at home plate back on the first day of fall baseball practice in 1971.

Ohio head baseball coach Joe Carbone, then an assistant to Marshall head coach Jack Cook, remembers it all too well - with a smile that is. He remembers it as a day that marked the beginning of a huge change for college baseball or, as he said, a "renaissance."

The renaissance officially began with the "ping" of a foreign object as Cook threw it upon home plate. To the baseball player, it looked like a bat, a metallic bat. The "crack" of the wooden bat was being replaced by the awkward "ping" of aluminum, and college baseball was never to be the same.

"I'll never forget coach Cook," Carbone said. "I remember him throwing this aluminum bat on the plate and saying, `Everybody's using this in fall practice.' And I remember all the players going, `Oh.' And when the ball hit the bat, it went `ping.' It was just this big clangy thing, and everybody thought it was a big joke."

Twenty-eight years later that "big joke" has become a big factor in college baseball. From the day in 1974 that the NCAA instituted aluminum as the required type of bat to be used in college to 1998's College World Series Championship, college baseball has changed into an entirely different game.

No longer were there as many pitcher's duels or, at least, regular, say 6-5 type of games. No, college baseball had turned into a home run contest as evidenced by 1998's championship in which Southern California beat Arizona State 21-14 in a four-hour, nine home run, 39 hit affair. The aluminum bat made everyone into a hitter.

"You've got guys swinging the bat one handed and the ball's out of the ball park just because they hit it just right, not because they had a good swing or anything like that," Carbone said. "Now you have a farce of the game. You have an imbalance of the game of baseball. When you have guys smaller than me hitting balls 450 feet, the balance is gone. So something kind of had to be done."

Following the football-score in the baseball championship game, something was done.

On December 15, 1998, an NCAA Division I committee finally put its figurative foot down on the continued increase and power of aluminum bats. It was ruled, in concurrence with Division II and III, that bat heads' thickness was decreased from two 3/4 inches to two 5/8 inches and the length-to-weight differential was reduced from five to three. In other words, a 34-inch long bat can weigh no less than 31 ounces.

Those changes angered aluminum bat manufacturers such as Easton Sports, Inc., which filed a restraint-of-trade $267 million lawsuit against the NCAA in August to try and stop the specification alterations.

Ohio's bat contract is with Easton.

"I have to be careful with what I say, because we're in a contract with Easton," Carbone said. "So I can't always give my viewpoints, but I think that the bat manufacturers and the NCAA or baseball are on the right track of getting it back a little bit to where it belongs.

"It has gotten better. The big guys are still hitting the ball out of the ball park. The little guys aren't hitting them out as frequently as they were before."

One of those "big guys," Ohio first baseman Jeff Rook, who hit five home runs in four games earlier this season, said the change has not been too evident.

"The change, this year, I really haven't seen too much of a difference in the way the ball is flying off the bat," he said. "I mean, you may have to hit it a little more solid than last year, and guys might be getting jammed a little bit more. But really I don't think there's too much of a difference in the bats this year."

A second change to aluminum bats will take place after this season. On August 1, the maximum speed for a batted-ball will be 93 mph. This measure is more for pitcher's physical protection than anything else, and it was back in an Ohio alumni game that Carbone truly realized the danger.

Carbone hit a line drive right by a pitcher's head with an aluminum bat.

"He never moved, he never flinched, he never saw the ball," he said.

But Ohio pitcher Ryan Hulse isn't preoccupied with the danger present with aluminum bats. Like Rook, he said he hasn't really noticed a change this season. He just thinks baseball has been hit with an overabundance of offense.

"It's just the way the age of baseball's turning right now," he said. "College baseball and the majors are just heading toward that trend, and me, being a pitcher, I don't care for it too much."

The enjoyment of the aluminum bat is somewhat non-existent for many, predominantly because of its personal effects. It makes pitchers look bad as balls jump out of the ball parks, coaches look lazy as they play for the frequent home run, and batters, despite the numerous hits, look unrealistic.

"The wood bat shows you what kind of hitter you really are," Rook said. "I mean you don't realize the difference there is, but there is a big difference. You've got to hit balls a lot firmer.

"Without a doubt, though, it's fun hitting the aluminum. I mean, the balls fly out a lot better. I mean, you don't have to hit it near as well, but as for the standpoint of the college player that wants to have a chance at the majors, I would say I'd rather have the wood."

It seems the consensus, at least at Ohio, is that the forgotten sound of "crack" at Bob Wren Stadium is welcome by all. But, for now, the "ping" will continue to resonate unmercifully.

Game note Ohio (16-24 overall, 7-11 in the Mid-American Conference) will play a doubleheader at Marshall Saturday at 1 p.m. It will play host to Marshall on Sunday at Wren Stadium at 1 p.m.