How does the grain run on baseball bats?

[dpb]

Not from the tour at H&B I went on -- but it was some years ago. But, I still doubt seriously the M-L bats aren't hand selected billets, etc. The others, surely...

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[Joe AutoDrill]

I just sold a unit to "drill" out the concave end of the bats at (insert major name company here)... I'll shoot him an e-mail and ask him...

Regards, Joe Agro, Jr. [phone]

[samson]

Here's a good article with some pictures about a place that makes bats, but it's mostly about the impact of the ash bore beetle.

[Joe AutoDrill]

Wow... Secondary question from me: Would love to know how they bore out the "slugs" prior to turning them into bats... It almost looks as if they use a deep hole saw to pull out a slug from a large log from teh concave cuts in the barky remnants they show.

Regards, Joe Agro, Jr. [phone]

01.908.542.0244 Automatic / Pneumatic Drills: Spindle Drills:

[B A R R Y]

Do you mean where the cork goes?

[Joe AutoDrill]

LOL... Only if it's a Red Sox player.

Seriously though, congrats to all Red Sox fans. I'm not a fan of teh game at all - last game I watched was the world series... When the yankees played the mets...

[DerbyDad03]

OT, but I remember the days when you could go to a major league stadium and they would give cracked bats to the fans like they do scuffed baseballs today.

I wonder which team's lawyer realized the liabilty they were subjected to via:

1 - Handing a weapon to a fan, especially considering alcohol might be involved. 2 - Giving a kid a bat, who would take it home and tape it up, and then have the bat break and hurt someone during a sand lot game.

Of course, I also remember Bat Days, when they would hand out little miniature bats to the first X thousand fans to enter the ballpark. What a concept - thousands of angry, drunk fans with team-issued weapons. How would you like to be a rent-a-cop on that day?

[High Score]

Richard Jagels, a prof of forest biology at UMaine has a regular column in WoodenBoat magazine. In this past issue, his article was on baseball bats. He makes a point that the switch from ash to maple (apparently Barry Bonds started a trend) has resulted in more broken bats. This is for a couple of reasons: 1. Maple has a very tight diffuse grain so it's much harder to assess and optimise grain orientation, in other words cross grain is harder to avoid, 2. Maple is stiffer and heavier than ash so some players want thinner handles so that they get some flex back or are trying to cut weight

"Toller" wrote in news:5cUUi.19934$ [e-mail]:

[Zz Yzx]

I remember (c. 1965-1970) goingto the Big 5 store, bying a Hillerich and Bradsby Louisville Slugger for $4.99 (later $5.99) (Micky Mantle profile/autogragh, thin handle, with a tapered barrel), and brining them to my Little League games. They'd break (usually a friend using them, not me). I'd bring it home, Dad would glue/nail/screw it back, and we'd use them for street and sandlot games.

Good times.... good times....

-Zz

[Jeffrey Thunder]

There is no minimum diameter by rule. The maximum diameter is 2.75" as you state. The maximum length is 42". I'm assuming OBR, not NCAA or FED (high school) here since you're talking about wood bats.

[Dave Gordon]

Has anyone tried willow. Here in the UK cricket bats - a similar use to baseball bats - are almost exclusivey made of this wood. You would need an expert - not me - to tell you why it is considered so good though.