The aptly named Miles City Mavericks American Legion baseball team is holding out against the weight of the entire world of organized amateur baseball. Good for them.

The team was in Helena on July 25, 2003, when a Helena player with an aluminum bat blasted a pitch right back at Miles City hurler Brandon Patch, who later died from a blow to the head.

Since then, Miles City has refused to play with aluminum bats, and won't play against any team that uses them. The Mavericks are certain that baseballs fly faster when hit by a metal bat, needlessly endangering players.

This week, Miles City decided to forfeit two games against the Bozeman American Legion team, which refused to give up its aluminum bats. "It's our decision to protect our kids," said Jim Regan, a member of the American Legion committee of the Miles City Youth Baseball Association.

The Miles City team is fighting a lonely battle. It is the only club among some 5,500 American Legion teams in the country that insists on wood-bat-only play.

Are metal bats really more dangerous than wood bats? At least one study suggests they are, but Jim Quinlan, the national program coordinator for American Legion Baseball, says statistics fail to show any significant difference. A nine-month review by the organization last year found no substantial scientific evidence that wood bats are safer.

The issue probably can't be decided to everyone's satisfaction. Baseball is a game of intuition as much as anything else. People who can't agree on when to yank a tiring pitcher or walk a power hitter aren't likely to agree on exactly what happens when an aluminum bat strikes a ball, either.

But you have to admire the Miles City team for its stubborn resolve to honor the memory of Brandon Patch by shunning metal bats. That, it seems to us, is a baseball tradition worth respecting.