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.
What’s the difference between reinventing the wheel and building a better mousetrap?
The former is a pointless exercise, and the latter is, well, basically what a New Jersey man has done by creating a revolutionary new wood composite bat that’s shatterproof.
Interesting article by Ken Belson at The New York Times website about the bat-making industry.
The story focusses on BWP Bats, a up-and-coming player in the industry that specializes in maple bats it manufactures from wood it harvests from its own forests and runs through its own mills. There’s a lot of inside info here on everything from manufacturing to marketing - worth a read.
When I saw the headline about a prehistoric mammal that used its tail like a baseball bat, I was only mildly tempted to click. I doubted there’d be video, and I figured video would be the best reason to look. But something still made me click it. And I’m glad I did, because had I not, I wouldn’t know that these mammals, called glyptodonts, not used its tail like a bat…it also has a sweet spot!
Long before Hank and the Babe were smacking homers (and also long before Andy Roddick found his 155 mph serve), Glyptodonts figured out the science behind the swing. MSNBC.com’s coverage included an explanation from research Rudermar Ernesto Blanco: The center of percussion is a point where you can deliver a very powerful blow with a baseball bat, a tennis racket, a sword, an axe or any hand-held implement, but the forces against your hands are almost zero.
They look like giant armadillos, so the bat boys would have some trouble keeping things organized. Catchers wouldn’t be safe, and I wouldn’t expect great baserunning speed. But the next time you make good contact, you may want to give a little thanks to these prehistoric creatures.
When this game first caught my eye, I thought it might be the last straw toward my exclamation, “Enough with the video games—go outside!” But since it’s the middle of a thunderstorm and I’ve been trapped in traffic with friends with iPhones quite enough this summer, I realized that the new iPhone game Baseball Slugger: Home Run Race 3D might be just what the iPhone-owning baseball fan might need during some downtime. Since I don’t have an iPhone (at least not yet), I’m relying on this demo:
You can look into plenty of the reviews, but my question is this: Is this a worthy downtime of our favorite pastime, or is it just another game keeping would-be batters indoors?
(And are you worried about ruining your Wii Baseball swing?)
At high schools and colleges across the nation, the debate about aluminum bat safety continues. Play Ball USA and Ron Cacini offer helpful words in this video. Cacini doesn’t try to convince you of an answer to the alumnium vs. wood question. Instead, he explains that it’s proper technique, bat weight, and bat length, that will help boost safety for those whose leagues use aluminum bats. He gives a general explanation of bat exit speed ratio. Cacini doesn’t talk much about wood bats, so it does have an air of advocating for aluminum.
For a casual video shoot in a batting cage, the former Houston farmhand really has a decent swing.
The 2009 Home Run Derby brought some exciting action, and a brand new leader in the baseball bat category. While the Champion Swung the original maple bat - Sam Bat , 4 of the 8 players were using Marucci - a name most hadn’t heard of just 2 years ago.
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.
Figuring out what to do when your playing days are over is a big deal for most professional athletes.
The Mets caught a break when newly-crowned Miss USA Rima Fakih stopped by Citi Field before a game last Thursday.