Wooden Baseball Bats
* How to * What to *
Buy Guide
Each player has his own feelings about the bat that performs best for his game. Many bats can be ordered in a length and weight commensurate with each player's size, weight, age and strength. We frequently get asked how to choose the right wood bat for players switching over from aluminum. Aluminum bats have been designed to be easy to hit with. They are weighted with the majority of the weight in the handle so they feel light for the 3 barrel sizes and one shape they come in.
Wood bats are made of a natural material so the weight is where the wood is, at the end. A player who swings a 33 inch 30 ounce aluminum bat usually finds a 33 inch 30 ounce wood bat much heavier. The closer a weight is to your body the more manageable it is to hit with. Pick up a wood bat and swing it. Now hold it by the barrel end and swing it again. It feels much lighter, right? Same length, same weight, same bat but it "feels" lighter to swing because the weight is closer to you. To get the right feel for the type of hitter you are there are factors such as handle shape, handle thickness, knob shape, barrel shape and balance that can be adjusted to find the right combination for each player.
Selecting what is right for you is an exercise in combining the shape that feels best in your hands with the balance that suits your swing and experience. This is part of the fun of swinging a wood bat. You can tailor the bat to your style of game and become a better hitter using wood to practice daily. Wood bats make your swing shorter, more direct to the ball and more efficient. The sweet spot is smaller and the accuracy necessary to swing a wood bat is far greater than with aluminum. Swinging a wood bat will make you a better hitter with aluminum and teach you to play the game the way it was designed to be played.
Hard Maple (when available) - a much harder and heavier wood. A finer, tighter and denser grain means less denting and chafing. A more solid type of wood with more drawing power. The barrel usually has to be thinned down to keep the weight lighter.
White Ash - the most popular wood for generations. It has good resilience to shock and, depending on where it is harvested, the weight of the bat will vary substantially. Ash is softer, lighter, and usually cheaper, but not only has a tendency to splinter, but also dent and chafe from repeated use. Be sure to look for a bat with the fewest growth rings, which means a stronger grain.
Birch - this wood is being used by many of the major bat producers. Its used instead of maple because it averages about 1 ounce lighter than maple, has more flex and is more shatter resistant. It is very hard to distinguish the difference.
Bamboo - this is a growing, popular, and more expensive option . These bats are made by pressing bamboo strips into billets, then turning the billets into bats. Because bamboo chutes are hollow, they tend to be extremely light bats. Because bamboo has a tensile strength greater than steel, the bats give the ball a tremendous kick. You will not see much difference from the results of a batted ball from a single-wall aluminum bat compared to bamboo.
MOST POPULAR LENGTH BY AGE
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Wood Bat Knowledge
Here's the stuff that too many players and coaches don't know...
(but would rather do it the wrong way than admit it!)
Handling and Care
Extreme temperatures are probably not a good idea. Wood bats should be stored in the house and not the garage. Simply store them in the back of your closet to keep them out of the way in the off season.
Breakage and Prevention
The reality of wood bats is that any one of them can be broken. However, with some knowledge and the right bat, they have been known to last a long, long time.
The first thing to do to reduce breakage is to understand that the placement of the trademark is not by accident. As no two trees are alike, no two bats are alike either. The trademark is placed on an area which has the greatest possibility of failure. The exact opposite side of the trademark is also a place where bats will be more likely to fail too. Take a close look and you will see how the grain runs and why this is true. So the simple rule of prevention here is.Bat with LABEL UP OR LABEL DOWN. While holding a bat with two hands extended across the plate, make sure the label faces up to the sky or down to the ground.
Hickory - this may be the "next-great" alternative. It's as hard a piece of wood as it gets, the inherent problem being its weight. However, with today's improved air kiln-drying methods, new ways are being uncovered to remove more of the moisture, which in turn means more of the weight. It may become a reality on the Major League circuit very soon. It will be a potent & maybe hardest-to-break bat than most anything else you could find. Nobody is making an all hickory bat yet, so stay tuned.
Wood Bat Selection Chart by Age
