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Related: About this forumWhy the Axe Bat, Dustin Pedroia may help make the round handle obsolete
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/why-dustin-pedroia-uses-the-axe-bat--which-may-make-the-round-handle-obsolete-013113798.htmlThe baseball bat is a brutish creation, a blunt instrument created to pummel a round ball. Never has anyone accused it of being some sort of technological marvel. It exists in almost the exact form it did when baseball first started a century and a half ago because even its earliest incarnations came pretty close to perfection.
Today's version looks about the same as it has for decades maybe a little shorter and lighter, some with cupped barrels, all with the same round knob on the handle, save for a single bat of those used by the 750 major leaguers. It belongs to Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia, and the man who helped make it a reality sees a future where all bats share the same handle as another humble tool: the axe.
"I think it's only a matter of time before the axe-shaped handle is the standard," said Hugh Tompkins, the director of research and development for Baden Sports, a Seattle-area company that created the Axe Bat, which this year received permission from Major League Baseball for in-game use. "The round-handled bat will be like a rotary telephone."
The Axe Bat replaces the knob with an oval-shaped handle that tapers into a curved, angled bottom. While Jimmy Rollins' furtive and occasional use of an Axe Bat two years ago marked its debut in major league games, Pedroia has spent a month using it as his lone bat, and the results are promising: Over the 28 games since he switched, he is hitting .353/.386/.504. His 42 hits over the past month are tied for the fourth most in baseball. And it's all with a bat that grew out of a simple question: Why does the knob the one piece of the bat known to hurt players, particularly those who grip it on the lower edge of the palm and put their hamate bones in danger still exist when it imperils those it's supposed to help?
Today's version looks about the same as it has for decades maybe a little shorter and lighter, some with cupped barrels, all with the same round knob on the handle, save for a single bat of those used by the 750 major leaguers. It belongs to Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia, and the man who helped make it a reality sees a future where all bats share the same handle as another humble tool: the axe.
"I think it's only a matter of time before the axe-shaped handle is the standard," said Hugh Tompkins, the director of research and development for Baden Sports, a Seattle-area company that created the Axe Bat, which this year received permission from Major League Baseball for in-game use. "The round-handled bat will be like a rotary telephone."
The Axe Bat replaces the knob with an oval-shaped handle that tapers into a curved, angled bottom. While Jimmy Rollins' furtive and occasional use of an Axe Bat two years ago marked its debut in major league games, Pedroia has spent a month using it as his lone bat, and the results are promising: Over the 28 games since he switched, he is hitting .353/.386/.504. His 42 hits over the past month are tied for the fourth most in baseball. And it's all with a bat that grew out of a simple question: Why does the knob the one piece of the bat known to hurt players, particularly those who grip it on the lower edge of the palm and put their hamate bones in danger still exist when it imperils those it's supposed to help?
Dustin needs to get a case of those for the rest of the Sox!
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Why the Axe Bat, Dustin Pedroia may help make the round handle obsolete (Original Post)
KamaAina
Jun 2015
OP
malthaussen
(17,204 posts)1. They can take my knob when they pry it out of my cold, dead hands.
Wait a minute, that didn't come out right. I mean...
-- Mal
hughee99
(16,113 posts)2. The Sox problems are more with swinging than holding bats.
Actually, their biggest issue is "missing bats" which the pitchers don't seem able to do.
joeybee12
(56,177 posts)4. Damn...now he's on the DL and we're getting slaughtered early...
Something needs to happen.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)5. Did he lend the bat to someone else?
Yavin4
(35,443 posts)6. Why not use a deflated bat?
Just kidding. Don't put me on ignore.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)7. Pffffffft!!
Of course, one could always use pine tar.