“Going Yard” Bat Blog

Jesse LaCasse, a 30-year-old currently playing professional baseball in Germany, started making bats in 2006, using high quality beechwood and setting up shop with a lathe and a handful of custom orders.

Now Subway is giving him a boost by highlighting LaCasse Bats in the 2010 Senior League World Series. Subway is a big sponsor of the event, and their pitchman Jared Fogle will be on hand for the closing ceremonies in Bangor, ME this weekend.

The exposure gained from this kind of tie-in is a huge boost for a small, custom bat-maker like LaCasse, and he’s already seeing a spike in demand for his totally customized bats offered in a variety of woods, color schemes, and technical specifications.

Just last week, we blogged about how dangerous broken bats can be - for players, coaches, officials and fans. So we weren’t too surprised to see this article in the news about a man who was hit in the face by a broken bat at a Mets game a few years ago who has filed a lawsuit seeking compensation for his injuries.

As much as we feel for the guy (he suffered serious injuries to his face and head), we were a little surprised at the numerous targets of his lawsuit: he is suing the Luis Castillo (the batter), Ramon Castro (Castillo’s then-teammate who loaned him the bat), the New York Mets, Major League Baseball and Rawlings, the bat manufacturer. No word yet on if he’s suing the hot dog vendor from that section of the stadium.

Seriously, though, if his contention is that maple bats are inherently more dangerous than other bats, is the batter really to blame? Or the player who owned the bat? Or the team?

Tell us what you think.

Broken wood bats can be dangerous. Razor-sharp shards of wood flying through the air, who knows where they may land? Players, coaches, officials and fans have all been injured by broken bats.

There’s been a lot of talk about the relative safety of wood bats recently, which makes us wonder about the different kinds of breaks and what causes them. There’s a really interesting site that explores the science of wood bats and explains the various causes of “bat failures.” Recommended reading.

In a widely anticipated move, the National Federation of State High School Associations enacted a rule banning the use of composite bats in high school baseball effective from the start of the 2010-11 school year.

They have, however, left some wiggle room, as the NFHS may consider waivers or modifications to this rule if composite bats can meet certain standards.

This has been a hot topic on the baseball-bats.net forum lately. What do you think about composite bats and this new ruling? Please discuss.

Figuring out what to do when your playing days are over is a big deal for most professional athletes.

Javy Lopez, one of the Atlanta Braves all-time fan favorites, is no exception.

When Javy retired, he started his own bat company - Bones Bats - and he’s keeping himself busy by building a business that provides top quality wood bats for every standard of play.

Javy spoke to with Anna Kim of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution after appearing at the Braves Alumni Weekend at Turner Field to talk about what he’s been doing since retiring from baseball. A good read.

As the College World Series grows more popular each year, the NCAA will also need to be more vigilant each year. Sure, the college game shouldn’t be as scandal-prone as the majors have been, but it can still have its problems. One of the big potential concerns is bat rolling, stretching the metal fibers by applying pressure from two rollers. The stretched fibers are more flexible, giving the bat more pop. Of course rolling is illegal in NCAA play, and The Boston Herald reports that of 500 bats tested at the College World Series, 25 were illegal, five because of rolling.

According to the Herald, Easton bats is working on a softball bat that would visually expose the affects of rolling, but there’s no word about the same practice for baseball bats.

The NCAA will be watching, and improving its ability to watch. We’ll keep an eye on it too.

Do you remember which Chicago club President Barack Obama favors? In interview with Stuart Scott last year, the then-candidate gave the answer. The White Sox. He even got to throw out the first pitch at their season opener this year.

But Obama has been a baseball fan since long before he moved to Chicago…the Tribune found a great childhood photo of him in Hawaii taking an early swing. The bat looks a little big for him… maybe he should have taken our advice about youth bats.

Obama is a lefty now, but from the follow-through, it looks like he may have been a righty in his youth. We’ll let that slide.

I don’t like to think about baseball and weddings at the same time. At least not often. Usually they’re separate, and I’m OK with that. But baseball season and wedding season start around the same time, so a few connections are natural.

Heather Travaglini, a wedding planner in Baltimore, had a lot of clever ideas if you want to incorporate a little baseball in your wedding. I know for some the idea of proposing on the scoreboard is a little much (it is for me). But I did like the idea of subbing baseball bats or baseballs for the guestbook. It’s unique without being too distracting, and it makes for a cool keepsake to display. Subtle, but special.

Flickr photo by givn

The last few months felt like the winter of the Wii, but now Opening Day is around the corner and Geekdad has his eye on the spring weather. He’s glad, like many parents are, that kids are putting down the Wii remote and picking up the real, old-fashioned baseball bats. It’s great, of course, that the Wii, and especially the Wii fit, combine video games and physical activity. But still nothing beats the real thing. Kudos to GeekDad for taking the kids out to the ball game…and to all the kids (and kids-at-heart) picking up their baseball bats this spring. With the regular season about part, let’s get ready to play ball!

I’m not sure what made him pick up a wood lathe an auction, but I’m glad that Michael Dean did. It made for a great story. Since he had the lathe, when his son Matt asked him to make him a new baseball bat, he gave it a try. The short version of the story: Matt loved the bat. Matt’s baseball team loved the bats. And now, just two years later, Michael has a full-fledged company. Michael’s bat manufacturing company, Silver Creek Baseball Bats, produces all of their bats by hand, and they’re expected to sell 1500 this year!