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A baseball bat is a smooth wooden or metal club used in the game of baseball to hit the ball after the ball is thrown by the pitcher. It is no more than 2.75 inches in diameter at the thickest part and no more than 42 inches (1067 mm) in length. It typically weighs no more than 36 ounces (1 kg). The batter uses the bat two-handed to try to hit a pitched ball fair so that he may become a runner, advance bases, and ultimately score a run or help preceding runners to score.Although using a stick to hit a ball is a somewhat simple concept, the bat is a complex object. It is carved or constructed very carefully to allow for a quick balanced swing, while providing power. The bat is divided into several regions. The "barrel" is the thick part of the bat, where the bat is meant to hit the ball. The part of the barrel best for hitting the ball with, according to construction and swinging style, is often called the "sweet spot". The end of the barrel is not part of the sweet spot, and is simply called the tip or end of the bat. The barrel narrows down, and becomes the "handle". The handle is very thin, so that batters can comfortably set the bat in their fingers. Sometimes, especially on metal bats, the handle is wrapped with a rubber or cloth "grip". Finally, next to the handle is the "knob" of the bat, a wider piece that keeps the bat from sliding out of a batter's hands. Over the centuries, the baseball bat's form as become more more refined. during the 19th century, many shapes were experimented with, as well as handle designs. Today, the baseball bat is much more uniform in design.
"Lumber" is a sometimes-used slang term for a bat, especially when wielded by a particularly good batter.
A mill worker places each split of wood onto an automatic lathe that shaves the rough edges off as it turns the wood. The billets, as they are now called, are inspected again for straightness of grain. The billets are stacked and strapped together into six-sided bundles. Workers paint the ends with a protective preservative to keep the wood from fraying or rotting. The bundled billets are then trucked to the lumberyard of the bat manufacturer.
The billets that arrive at the lumberyard are considered "green" wood because they still contain sap and gum. In order to strengthen the wood, the sap and gum must be removed by an air-drying process called "seasoning." To achieve the proper seasoning, the billets are simply stacked in the yard for a period of six months to two years.
When the billets have dried completely, they are weighed and inspected for quality. A worker places each billet on an automatic lathe and shapes it into a rough baseball bat shape with a narrowed neck. The bat forms are sanded, inspected once more, and then sorted according to weight. The bat manufacturer keeps a model of each bat made, typically identified by the baseball player who initially ordered it. When a player or team places an order, the order may look like this: six Johnny Bench models, ten Hank Aarons, four Mickey Mantles.
The plant workers who create the final product are called bat turners. They are highly skilled artisans who have been specially trained for the intricate work. When an order is placed, the bat turner selects a billet from the storage bin that fits the called-for weight and length. The billet is placed on a lathe. The model bat is placed on a rack above and behind the lathe. The bat turner revolves the billet slowly on the lathe, sanding and shaving it to an exact replica of the model. Using calipers, the bat turner measures the billet every 1-2 inches (2.54-5 cm) and weighs it repeatedly until it is perfect.
The bat is branded with the company trademark and the signature of the player associated with the model. The trademark is placed one-quarter of a turn from the sweet spot (the ideal spot where the ball should strike the bat). If the order calls for staining, the bat is dipped into a staining vat. All of the bats are then varnished, packed into cartons, and shipped to the player or team.
In professional baseball, only wooden bats are permitted, and they are not allowed to be corked—that is, filled with an alien substance such as cork which reduces the weight, and was thought to thus increasing bat speed without greatly reducing hitting power. Recent experiments, such as Episode 1 of Season 6 on the television show MythBusters, have shown that corking reduces the hitting power of a bat. In amateur baseball, both wood and metal alloy bats are generally permitted. Recently there have been increasing numbers of "wooden bat leagues" and the trend back to wood seems to be accelerating on the grounds of safety concerns. Aesthetically, wooden bats are generally agreed to be superior to metal bats, both because of their more traditional appearance and because a ball hit with a wooden bat makes a loud "crack" sound, similar to a stone hitting a wooden fencepost while metal alloy bats have a "ping" sound, similar to the sound of a stone hitting an aluminum fencepost.
Most wooden bats are made from ash. Traditionally, ash trees from Pennsylvania and upstate New York are used to make baseball bats. The ash is valued for its strength, flexibility, and light weight. The best trees are those that grow in dense clusters where they are protected from the wind and forced to grow straight up towards the sunlight. Forty to fifty years of growth is required to bring an ash tree to the preferred trunk diameter of 14-16 inches (36-41 cm). Each tree yields approximately 60 bats. Other natural materials used include maple tree wood, hickory wood, and bamboo. Hickory has fallen into disfavor because it is much heavier than other woods, while maple bats have become more popular recently. This ascent in popularity followed the introduction of the first major league sanctioned maple baseball bat in 1997, by craftsman Sam Holman, founder of Sam Bat.
When a tree has reached the proper height and width, a forester marks it with spray paint. A log cutter then uses a chain saw to bring down the tree. The top branches are removed and left in the forest. The tree trunks are sawed into 10-16-foot (3-5 m) lengths, loaded on a truck, and taken to the mill. At the mill, the logs are inspected for knots and uneven grains. Only half of what is cut in the forest is ultimately used to manufacture baseball bats. The logs that make the grade are rolled to a hydraulic wedge that cuts them into 40-inch (101 cm) splits.
Within the standards set by the various leagues, there is ample latitude for individual variation, and many batters settle on an individual bat profile, or occasionally adopt a profile used by another batter. Formerly, bats were hand-carved to a template obtained from a fixed number of calibration points; today, they are machine-turned to a precise metal template: these templates are kept in the bat manufacturers' vaults; for example, Babe Ruth's template, which became understandably popular among major-league players, is R43 in the Louisville Slugger archives. Once the basic bat has been turned, it is then branded by burning, with the manufacturer's name, the serial number, and often the signature of the player for whom it was made: the brand is applied to the hard side of the bat, allowing the batter visual control of the hardness of the surface hitting the ball; the burn residue is then sanded off. (The first player to endorse and sign a bat was Honus Wagner.) The next step is the finishing of the head: bats are more often given a rounded head, but some 30% of players prefer a "cup-balanced" head, in which a cup-shaped recess is made in the head; this lightens the bat and moves its center of gravity toward the handle. Finally, the bat is stained in one of seven standard colors, which include natural white, red stain, black, and a two-tone blue and white stain.
In high school baseball in the United States, the bat is not allowed to be more than 2 5/8 inches (67 mm) in diameter. The difference between inches of length and ounces of weight must be no more than 3. For example, a 34‑inch (863.6‑mm) bat must weigh at least 31 ounces (880 g). The bat in high school may consist of any safe, solid, uniform material; the National Federation of State High School Associations rules state only "wood or non-wood" material.
In some 12-year-old-and-under youth leagues (such as Little League Baseball), the bat may not be more than 2 1/4 inches (57 mm) in diameter. However in many other leagues (like PONY League Baseball, and Cal Ripken League Baseball), the bat may not be more than 2 3/4 inches (70 mm) in diameter.
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