Hey Dad, everyone on the team is getting this new softball bat! How much is it? $250, but it’s really cool. You can’t be serious! This was my conversation a little less than 20 years ago with my youngest daughter. She played fast pitch softball throughout her youth. And yes, of course, I purchased the Anderson RockeTech for her shortly thereafter. Her teammates and she put them to good use, winning many games and tourney titles. Crazily, she still has the bat today as an important keepsake in her life.

What’s the latest craze in baseball bats? MLB’s torpedo bats! Marucci Sports and Louisville Slugger, among others, are now offering a bat with a bigger barrel (the wider part of the bat) that increases a batter’s chances of hitting the baseball on the “sweet spot”. Many of today’s stars, most particularly the Yankees’ Giancarlo Stanton and the Mets’ Francisco Lindor, are now using them. And they are absolutely legitimate! Rule 3.02(a) of MLB’s regulations simply provides that the bat shall be a smooth, round stick of solid wood not more than 2.61 inches in diameter and 42 inches long. While the rule prohibits laminated or aluminum bats, the new torpedo bats are in line with the regulations.

The history of bats in baseball is a fun one. The early bats were basically pieces of wood with no real handle to ensure a good grip. In 1890, Emile Kinst invented the banana bat which was somewhat curved to create a spinning motion as the bat made contact with the baseball. Sometime later, Spalding captured the baseball bats market with its design of a mushroom-shaped handle. Along the way, baseball has also seen bats with two knobs on the handle and even one, as recently as 1990, that features an axe handle of sorts. The Dodgers’ Mookie Betts still uses a similar type. If you are interested in exploring further the development of baseball bats, I highly recommend your visiting the Louisville Slugger Museum in Kentucky.

Today, most MLB players use bats weighing between 31 and 35 ounces and are in the mid 30s range of inches in length. It’s a balance between generating speed and power in your swing. When I think of big baseball bats, my thoughts turn to Dick Allen, a power hitter who played for six MLB teams in a fifteen year career (1963-1977). Allen pushed the limits of the bat, standing in the batter’s box with a 42 inch and 42 ounce monster bat for much of his career. He will go into the Hall of Fame this year as a Phillie since he played most of his career in Philadelphia. Allen won the 1972 AL MVP award as a member of the White Sox.

So why is baseball promoting the new torpedo bats? It’s one way to address the struggling offensive production we’ve seen in the past five years. Batting averages, home runs, and runs scored have always fluctuated in baseball’s history. We’ve had the “Dead Ball Era” in the 1910s and the “Year of the Pitcher” in 1968. We often think of good hitters as ones with .300 batting averages. Not a fair measuring stick anymore. You might not have noticed, but in 2024 there were only EIGHT(!) MLB players with a batting average of .300 or more. Indeed, in MLB history there have been only four periods of 5-8 years where batting averages steadily declined. We are in one of them.

Just over two years ago, Aaron Leanhardt, then a Yankees coach, decided to do something about it. Leanhardt has a very interesting background. He is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a former Physics professor at the University of Michigan. He is thought of as the inventor of the torpedo bat. When he left the Yankees to serve as a field coordinator with the Marlins the last two seasons, he worked with manufacturers to make the torpedo bats a reality. In fact, his former team, the Yankees, were at the center of the torpedo bat controversy during the first week of this season. With the torpedo bats in hand, the Yankees hit a record nine home runs during a Saturday game against the Brewers on March 29.

The torpedo bats have found their way into other bat racks in MLB dugouts, notably, the Cubs. Dansby Swanson is a big believer. He told the Chicago Tribune: “All the data and everything behind it obviously supports that it works.” His infield mates, Nico Hoerner, Michael Busch, and Matt Shaw, have also tried them. New hitting coach Dustin Kelly offered: “When you actually think about it and they (the manufacturers) explain to you why it’s made that way and what the benefits are, it makes a ton of sense.” Maybe the torpedo bats are just the right, magic potion to turn the tide of pitcher dominance in today’s game.

So what does the MLB brass have to say about them? All in! In an article published by the New York Times a couple weeks ago, Commissioner Rob Manfred deemed torpedo bats “absolutely good for baseball”. Manfred maintained: “The bats comply with the rules. Players have been moving the sweet spot around in bats for years. But it demonstrates that something about the game is more important than is captured by TV ratings or revenues or any of those things, when you have the discussions about it.” In other words, keep talking about them – it’s good for the game!

I remember years ago my Knothole (little league) team was issued two, wooden bats for the entire season. Coaches would implore us to “keep the grain up” during every at bat so we wouldn’t break one of them. If you were really lucky, your parents would take you to “Bat Day” at Crosley Field so you could get a bat of your own. When I was about ten years old, aluminum bats were introduced. I thought they were the greatest invention ever! Our team had two of them, slightly different sizes, but clearly we were good to go for the season. Stories and memories of the little nuances, like baseball bats, tend to impact all eras and levels of play. That’s what is good for the game!

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach