“Going Yard” Bat Blog

Baseball’s efforts for cancer awareness don’t stop a the MLB-wide Mother’s Day campaign. This week, the Yankees welcomed an honorary bat girl, Polly Tompkins, who is battling stage 4 melanoma.

Tompkins threw out the first pitch, hung out with Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, and Nick Swisher, and brought about 100 friends and family members to the game. Donning a white and pink jersey, when Tompkins pointed to her group in the stands, Rodriguez and Swisher jumped into the section, shook hands, and signed autographs.

It’s not every day that the pregame schedule takes on this meaning—it’s good to see the game making a difference and giving people an incredible experience.

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.

The baseball bat industry is so huge that of course most of the big companies are mass producing their bats. But handcrafted baseball bats aren’t a lost art, and Morgan Paige from PressPassTV has a report with great visuals from on how Akadema makes bats by hand.

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

I probably don’t put enough thought into gifts. At least not enough thought to figure out a really "cool" gift for friends’ weddings and birthdays. That was before this post gave me a great idea: baseball bats as gifts.

The post was about groomsmen’s gifts, but really a baseball bat makes a great gift for many occasions. The most fun to be had is in researching game-used bats, collectibles that any fan will appreciate. For friends’ kids, get them started with their first (and favorite) baseball bat. Just make sure you know the latest information about youth baseball bats before you start your search.

Most baseball fans may not be much for shopping, but baseball bat shopping could be right in our wheelhouse.