Baseball bats

          In this post I will be discussing baseball bats. I played baseball almost my whole life, and one thing that immediately stood out to me in this section was how it almost perfectly applies to the production and use of baseball bats.  Over the years undoubtedly production methods have made baseball bats better. They’re more comfortable, have larger “sweet spots," and higher exit velocities than previous generations. However year to year all companies continually produce newer versions of the same bat from the previous year with little to no difference among performance. They may have different color schemes, different names, possibly even a different weight distribution throughout the bat but otherwise they are all relatively the same thing. To me this is especially true since baseball leagues now have to stick to a BBCOR standard for all bats. This is meant to level the playing field between hitters and pitchers and make metal or composite bats more comparable to wooden ones. This also had an effect on decreasing exit velocity as well as making sure if bats did break they would not splinter and hurt any players. However although these bats are fairly similar hitters always have a certain type of bat they feel more comfortable with or “hit better” with. If a hitter uses an Easton Stealth bat for a year and has the best year of his career hitting, then he will undoubtedly keep using that bat, regardless of whether the bat made any difference or not. Eventually however baseball bats do wear out, and after they do you can be sure there will be a newer model of the same bat that somehow improved upon the last one in some way that companies are able to market it as better. We can spend all the time we want looking through bats, other peoples opinions on them, whether to use a two piece or one piece bat. In the end however the amount of work put in by the player will have a much greater effect on his performance than the bat ever will.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

            Baseball is one America’s favorite and oldest past times. There is tremendous history and tradition associated with the game, and compared to the other major sports in America, it is still mostly governed by its original rules and procedures. For me personally, there are many feelings affiliated with Baseball. When I think back to the late 90’s to mid 2000’s Boston Red Sox, I get a warm feeling of happiness. It reminds me of being in my late teen years and early twenties, watching this incredible group of players make history. It was so exciting, and was a visceral experience. When the Red Sox lost in 2003 to the Yankees, I felt like my heart had been ripped out. It was like time stopped until the next season. I knew they were going to win in 2004. There was zero doubt.

            It’s not just that I feel connected to this team through our shared failures and triumphs. It is also a source of pride for my home city, Boston. I lived in Colorado for a couple of years, and the pizza place I worked at was owned by a couple of guys from New Jersey. Most people from New Jersey are Yankees fans, and this is the rival team of the Red Sox. It was fun, having competitive banter with them. But more to the point, it gave me a sense of home when I was pretty far away from home. I could meet other folks coming into the restaurant who were from Boston, and we were able to have that nice moment of comradery. Being a fan of the Sox gave me a sense of home.

Another way that I engaged with Baseball back then was through fantasy sports. I don’t play so much anymore, as it tends to get pretty intense and laborious, but I had a few good years of playing. Baseball is full of so many interesting statistics, and there is so much more to observe and calculate than most sports. For example; when one is picking his quarterback to start on a given week in fantasy football, he is mostly just considering the health of the offense around the quarterback, and the other team’s defensive skill level. With Baseball and selecting a starting pitcher, you have to consider the stadium, the batting statistics of all nine players against your pitcher (as well as worrying about potential pinch hitters), your pitchers energy level, his teams bullpen, his teams offense, etc. It is more complicated, and there are so many more variables. Baseball appears to attract a more patient and analytic audience. What I enjoy about Baseball is that it manages to steer clear of some of that “meat head” mentality that is often associated with professional sports.