“Going Yard” Bat Blog

They’re going back to wood bats in New Mexico high school baseball for the 2012 season - a move that results in a shift baseball strategy and tactics.

Baseball great Tom Seaver spent his career shutting down would-be sluggers.

Now he’s found a new passion in the wine industry. Check this out.

Good to see the former superstar enjoying his time off the field.

Here’s a nice reminiscence on the heavy wood bats of a bygone era.

While this predates our own baseball-obsessed childhood, we feel a certain kinship with the author.

Well worth a read!

If you need evidence of baseball’s global appeal, look no further than the Wikipedia entries discussed in this enjoyable read.

But somehow Major League Wezen-Ball just doesn’t sound right…

It seems like just yesterday we were embroiled in the performance-enhancing drugs scandal that rocked Major League Baseball.

But the years have passed in an instant, and now we’re coming up on the first years of Hall of Fame eligibility for the greats of that era like Clemens, Sosa and Biggio.

The question is, how do we deal with the elite players of the tainted years of MLB?

While the highlights of the 2011 MLB season are unforgettable, the lowlights have a persistence of memory all their own. Fatalities, fiascos and epic fails make the list of MLB lows in 2011.

Major League Baseball’s new ban on low-density maple bats excludes currently active MLB players.

The message, we guess, is that bat safety is of paramount importance - for rookies.

Little League International has announced bat specs and standards for the 2012 season - check it out here.

Although the ban on composite-barreled bats remains in effect, some composite-barreled bats have received waivers based on the Bat Performance Factor and the Accelerated Break-In process.

For your ease of use, here’s the list of approved composite-barreled bats for the Little League Majors Division in 2012.

In the quest to make bats better, stronger and safer, leave it to the Wood Scientist to lead the way.

This one places among our favorites in the pantheon of great job titles. We hope it’s on his business card.

What’s going on with Nike bats? College baseball teams contracted to use Nike bats can now choose to use other bats if they wish. Is this due to performance problems?

We can’t speak from first-hand experience: we haven’t used Nike bats yet, though we’ve been meaning to try them out. Have you used Nike bats? Get on the forum and tell us what you think.