Kvelve's Comments: Crack of the bat

I was once accused of not being very good with change.

That, my friends, is totally untrue. 

I can deal with change as well as anyone...with some limitations. 

For example, I’m all for doing away with daylight saving time.  Pick a time and leave it alone! 

I was an active agent in the diaper changing stuff that comes from having three kids. Sometimes it is not pleasant, but it has to be done. 

But when it comes to changes that affect my sports interests, yeah, I can be resistant to change. 

The latest “change” to catch my interest is the introduction and use by an increasing number of baseball teams employing a new technology in bat construction. 

It took me a long time to get used to the “ping” of a bat as opposed to the “crack” of the bat when the powers that be started making baseball and softball bats out of aluminum. 

Save some money, right? Aluminum bats rarely crack, and I’m not talking about the sound.  Wooden bats do crack and need to be replaced. 

Bats made of anything except Nerf material, can be very expensive to replace. “Trademark up” was the standard rule to help extend the lives of wood bats.   

The trouble the reason they haven’t made it to the professional ranks is that a ball struck by a metal bat tends to fly farther and faster when contact is made.  And don’t get me “stahted” on the sound. 

Ping is not crack.  Ping is not baseball.  Ping is a change I could do without, but I don’t pay directly for wooden bats, unless I’m billed for the bats used in the Congressional baseball games.  Imagine that, the government using my tax money for baseball bats for members of congress? 

So now I read about a new sensation in baseball bat “technology” that has produced a new and “superior” design element that amps up the concept of a wooden object striking a ball with a horsehide cover. 

The benefit, they say, is a struck ball that travels farther and a bat that lasts longer than a conventional wood bat. 

Easy Mr. Ruth, no need to be rolling in that grave. 

The concept for these so-called torpedo bats is based on reshaping the deployment of wood in the “barrel” or meat of the bat.  By making the area closer to the wood-burned label, an increased surface area in the spot where studies have shown most solid contact occurs, the ball will go farther.  An increased mass meets incoming object causing a greater hit makes sense. 

The new bats are called torpedo bats because of that change of shape, which one industry spokesman said makes the new bats look like elongated bowling pins. 

Using the new bats, the Yankees clouted nine home runs, including the first four batters to come to the plate, in a new-season 20-9 win over the Milwaukee Brewers. 

Eureka, some must have shouted... “we have created the ultimate bat”. 

Until the next change comes along. 

Presumably the new bats go “crack”, not “ping” so I’m not ready to reject the idea, not that anyone would give a rat’s behind if I did. 

The bat changers may actually have stumbled on to something even more important. 

Change with compromise? 

Play ball!