The myth of trademarks

Hitters today are plagued with the problem of breaking wooden bats. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the recent major league maple bat dilemma. The dangerous splintering of maple bats that has resulted in serious injuries has brought to light the dangers created when proper instruction of hitters regarding the orientation of the edge grain at the point of contact is not heeded. Most wooden bat breakage problems can be resolved by correctly orienting the logo (or trademark) to place the edge grain parallel to the flight of the baseball at the point of contact. This is the position that produces the lowest break and the highest hitting power.

The traditional saying “face up logo” originates from the early years of baseball when hitters used a different style of hitting. Hitters like Gehrig, Dimaggio and others swung the bat more linearly and transferred more weight to the front foot. This forward momentum kept the upper body level and therefore the barrel of the bat did not rotate. Today’s hitters use a spin method to swing a bat. More weight is placed on the rear leg with the batter rotating the torso. This causes the shoulders to lean toward the ball and creates rotation of the barrel of the bat. The result is that today’s hitters tend to hit with the flat grain of the bat more often, resulting in breakage and loss of power.

To reduce breakage, hold the bat in front of you with the logo facing up (or in front of you). Then rotate the logo toward your leading shoulder (the shoulder closest to the pitcher). The more you hit with your back foot, the more you should rotate the bat toward your front shoulder. The maximum angle should be 45 degrees. You may want to put a mark on the bat once you get the ideal lineup. This should put the bat in the proper hitting position with the grain of the edge perfectly aligned to hit the ball. This proper alignment will not only dramatically decrease braking, but will also increase hitting power due to the restriction of bat flex.

Other things you can do to reduce breakage include:

• Use a heavy rhythm. A -3 metal swinger is not the same as a -3 wood swinger. Metal beats have greater strength than wood at low weights. -3 wooden bats break more often than -2 wooden bats. Remember, there is no such thing as -3 trees. To lose weight you have to sacrifice density and that decreases strength. Ideally, you should hit with a wooden bat that weighs the same as its length. A 33″ bat should weigh 33 oz. The difference between an even weight bat and a -3 is less than a hamburger, so lift yourself up and go up in weight for better performance.

• You can also increase the diameter of the handle. Most wooden bat companies offer shafts that are less than 1″ in diameter, which means the bat will break very easily. Old school shafts were often larger than 1″, making bats they were a bit heavier but reduced breakage. Plus, a larger diameter shaft means less flex and that equals more power.

Lastly, pitchers with good fastball movement can cut you up on the inside and there isn’t much you can do about it. But, most of the bats that break did so when they hit the outfield and, in particular, off-speed. You don’t have to throw the ball hard to break a bat. Hitting the last 2″ of the barrel causes the bat to flex back excessively and will fracture the bat at a point near the hands and the break will form on the leading edge of the bat. This is the opposite of what happens with a bat broken by an inside fastball breaking on the trailing edge An inside fastball hits the shaft and stops shaft momentum The barrel, which has more mass, continues forward causing a U-shaped tilt of the barrel bat forward This causes the bat to break into the hands on the trailing edge.

The key to hitting the outside pitch is to hit it from the back of the plate. This will allow the barrel to hit the ball solidly and drive it hard into the opponent’s court. Not timing the outside pitch correctly leads to mishit balls off the end of the bat, weak squiblers, broken bats, embarrassment, taunting, losing, you get the picture. Practice hitting the opposing field with power. It can only be done by hitting the back of the plate. You should never start batting practice with inside pitches that you can throw. Always have the BP pitcher start with outside pitches and work pitches to the inside.

The MLB recently approved a series of guidelines for wooden bats. In these guidelines was a requirement to place logos on the “grain face” rather than on the edge grain. This would decrease tearing and, by his own admission, decrease performance. Oddly enough, this method works to break because now instead of players turning the face side of the pimple toward the baseball, they now turn the edge of the pimple toward it. Unless, of course, hitters know that the orientation of the face grain causes decreased performance and don’t place the logo facing up, but instead face the pitcher or catcher instead. We have observed that this is the case.

The corrective technique mentioned in this article could have achieved the same result without the widespread chaos and extensive expense incurred by bat companies to comply with MLB decisions.

Remember, good technique and focus reduce bat breakage and increase performance.