Bat Length

Do Professional Players use Heavy or Light Bats?

The answer to that question is "both," though past players tend to have used heavier bats than do today's players.

Baseball's "king of swat" Babe Ruth reportedly began his hitting career using a 54 ounce (1.5 kg) hickory bat, and is known to have used a 40oz bat in 1927 when he hit his 60 home runs.

Ty Cobb and Joe Di Maggio both played with 42oz bats.

Rogers Hornsby used a 50oz piece of lumber.

George Sisler, playing for the St. Louis Browns in the 1920's, made his bat heavier by hammering Victrola needles into the barrel of his bat.

In the 1950's Cincinnati Reds' Ted Kluszeski hammered tenpenny nails into his bat to make it heavier.

Other great hitters including Ted Williams, Rod Carew and Stan Musial used much lighter bats: 31-33oz.

Roger Maris used a 33oz bat to hit his 61 home runs in 1961.

Many players have tried to make their bats lighter by drilling a hole in the barrel and filling it with cork. Detroit Tigers' Norm Cash admitted to using a corked bat in 1961 when he won the batting title with a .361 average (though he slumped to .243 the next year with the same corked bat).

Kirkpatrick reports that Roger Maris participated in a 1962 experiment in which he batted for distance with 5 different new bats whose weights varied from 33 to 47oz. He hit 5 long fly balls with each bat and the distances were measured and correlated to bat weight. The heavier bats, on average, resulted in further distance. However, Maris' preferred bat (which he used to break Babe Ruth's home run record) was the lightest of the set, even though it produced the shortest distance fly balls.

Roids Ball

Mark McGwire used a 35oz bat to hit his 70 home runs in 1998, and Barry Bonds used a 32oz bat to hit his 73 home runs in 2001.

Most of today's major league players typically use 31-35oz bats.



Yogi Berra

Ht :5'8" Wt : 190

35" - 35 oz.

Wow, cool stuff. How big is Alfonso Soriano's? I heard his bat is long also..Any way you can find out?

Quincy your timing on this is excellent. (at least for me)

We are reviewing the bat length/weight bat for my son right now. I am not sure of the answer but would like the opinion of some of the batter types here. I have put in some references below that are help but don't provide any practical assistance.

Player:

HS Soph
6'3"
175 lbs
Arm length 34" (I will measure him tonight but they may be longer)
Current bat: 33"
Currently the 4 hitter on his Vars team.

The Kettering article is interesting as it suggests that MLB players should use heavier bats in the case of pure hitting distance, however it does not address bat control.

In my son's case he has become an excellent hitter this year with some power and we were wondering if the move to a 34" would be advisable.

Right now I am leaning toward staying with the 33" until he gains another 15 lbs or so. The baseball bats chart looks like a take off of the Bahill work and suggest: height/3 + 5 which would keep him in a 33"

Sorry if I high jacked this thread a little, but any suggestions appreciated. I am also interested in the general thinking about bat weight for pros, as the physics suggests heavier bats.

References:

http://www.kettering.edu/~drus.../bats-new/batw8.html

http://www.baseball-bats.net/b...eball-bat/index.html

Ross "Satchel" Davis
length 35", weight 36 ounce
Davis used a bat like this one (almost identical in length and weight to the bat Alfonso Soriano uses in the Majors)
as a heavy-hitting pitcher who could win his own games with his bat.

If I were you, I would check the rules of the sports association. Some place limits on bat size along with the BSR stips.

If possible, I would say that a player at 6'3" - 175 lbs. should be using a 35" - 32 oz bat. (Comes in handy when reaching down for breaking stuff)

Mickey Mantle came up to the pro's at about 5'11" and 165 lbs.

I belive in our area HS players are limited to 34" bats. but I will check. He has very long arms and has not had a problem going after low pitches. His friend has a 34" so maybe he can try it during BP and see how it feels. I was concerned about the bat dragging through the zone a little.

Try to start with a 34 " - 34 oz.

From there you'll have the minus 1 etc options.