Bat Materials

[softball66]

Dave Bushing has written an informative column on store bats in his MEARS column:
http://www.mearsonline.com/news/newsDetail.asp?id=457

I've always had this question that did H&B make store bats similar in design and shape to what the player used? I've never seen this answered.

[Cowboy7130]

Several years ago, Sports Illustrated ran an article on metal bats. I remember they had a composite pic of Babe Ruth swinging a modern Easton aluminum bat. (A very disturbing picture indeed! )

In the article, a modern bat technologist assured the journalist that a synthetic bat that mirrored the hitting characteristics of wood without wood's drawbacks was entirely feasible. It could be made to be unbreakable, and still have the "pop" and the "feel" that a good wood bat should have. I wonder how much progress has been made in that area, if any? Wouldn't a synthetic, unbreakable bat be a good thing, as long as it faithfully mirrored the characteristics of wood?

[Cowboy7130]

As usual, I spout off about what I think I know before I know it ... but this time I was close to being right! The July 24, 1989 issue of SI:

July 24, 1989
End Of An Era
What would the Babe think? The crack of the wooden bat is being replaced by the ping of aluminum. And by the end of the next decade, the ping is likely to be heard in the majors
Peter Gammons

... ""The aluminum process has come so far that we can do anything we want with a bat," says H & B engineer David Ottman. "The colleges want the liveliest, most souped-up bats we can make, and you can't blame the kids for wanting an edge. But we can make an aluminum bat that performs almost exactly like a wood bat. We can make the sweet spot any size we want. We can make the balance points any place we want. We can make it so the weight is the same and the ball jumps the same. The only difference might be in the handle, but we can make it more like a wood action down there than it is now. It just won't break. If the pros sit down with Easton or with us, we can design specifications to fit any of their needs. The bat companies aren't going to stay in the wood business much longer, so baseball might as well start thinking about it." ...

[softball66]

Amen. It may just be a matter of time till the rules will change to metal and if you don't think baseball as we know it will change, think again. There will be a 20% to 30% lift in all offensive categories with metal, perfected bats. We've already seen what maple and a few more experimental woods can do.
I've seen it personally in softbal from the wooden to the early heavy aluminums to the Ultra 2s from Miken and double wall bats. And, like he says, who can blame the player. They're looking for an edge and if chemicals can do it, so can huge sweetspots, little vibrations, distance etc.
Wooden bats will become more collectible for us scroungers. Years ago I was browsing thru a flea market and checking out a barrel of bats and the
owner called over to me, "Iron bats two dollars, wood bats a dollar."

[GloveGypsy]

I have a vintage Horogamo bamboo bat and I mean this thing is a club!

I think this thing is virtually unbreakable, yet has that "crack" noise only a wooden bat can give. I don't know about distance off bamboo, but if anyone can shed some light on this idea, I would appreciate it.

[Cowboy7130]

My son's bamboo bat is made of four pieces of bamboo, fused together and then lathed. To meet major league specs, a bat must be a single piece of wood. Is your bamboo bat a single piece of wood? If so, then it would fulfill the MLB requirement, and would be acceptable.

I have a friend who coaches at a local university. His players use bamboo bats in the cages all the time and swear by them. He says they have a lot of "pop" and are tough as steel.

Maybe bamboo would be a good alternative to ash and maple.
From what I have read, bamboo is renewable on a large scale. It can be farmed and harvested quickly. If it performs comparably to other woods, I predict we will see some bamboo in the bigs soon.

[Mike_2007]

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=j ... &type=lgns

[offsidewing]

MLB needs a Brittany Cecil or Mike Coolbaugh before they do anything about bats. They have players who feel they need to use steroids to be competative, so this isn't a media malestrom yet. It will take a player getting maimed or fan dying before they do anything.

Third basemen and pitchers will die on the field from line drives if MLB ever goes aluminum. Ever see an aluminum bat burst? First its a small crack, then a long thin one, then the thing explodes like a hot dog in the microwave. Umps, catchers, and batters are getting tiny aluminum chunks pulled from facial/canial bone at the ER. Of course, one would have to be a moron to not notice the cracked bat or knowlingly use a cracked bat. However, if/when those things burst, people get injured.

[MVALZ]

I faced a fireballer today who was really bringin it. Used a 33" Louisville composite (usually swing a 34" Nokona Maple) thats been around. I've had a couple teammates over the years who have used a LS comp and have yet to see one break. Managed to crack one over 300 ft for a stand up double...wonder where it would have landed with my maple

[offsidewing]

My kitchen cabinets are made of maple. It won't be too long before my pitcher buddies won't go in to the kitchen to grab a beer from fear of being impaled.

Remember the easton titanium softball bats from about 15 years ago...

[wbunnell]

Looks like Johnny Damon is switching back to ash from maple. And he's doing this while batting .443 in the past 24 games!

http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/news/art ... y=news_nyy