12 Reasons You Should Use Wood Bats Instead of Metal
1. It’s in the rule book. You’ll never see a metal bat in the professional levels of the sport, because it’s against the rules. In the MLB rulebook it states: “The bat shall be a smooth, round stick not more than 2.61 inches in diameter at the thickest part and not more than 42 inches in length. The bat shall be one piece of solid wood.” So, if that’s what the pros have always used, why play with anything else? MLB institutes this rule for the same reason as reason #2. They believe it’s “true to the game.”
2. They preserve the authenticity of the game. This is the most important part. Baseball is an old game, its origin dating back as far as the mid-1700s. It wasn’t till the 1970s, over 200 years later, that the first aluminum bat was used, and back then, the metal bats would dent and bend. Baseball was meant to remain old and classic in the materials used for the equipment.
3. It allows for a fair comparison to the records of the past. If metal bats were allowed to be used at the professional levels of the sport, it wouldn’t create a fair comparison to the great players of the past and what they accomplished.
4. The baseball was meant to be hit by lumber, not alloy. The construction of a baseball is old in origin too. Made of cork, rubber, wool, twine, and genuine leather, the baseball is far more fittingly paired against a bat made of wood than one made of aluminum. If we modernize baseball by making bats from modern alloys, then what’s stopping us from making the ball from highly processed synthetic rubbers or chemically engineer materials like polyurethane foams or polystyrenes. Then, if we change the bat and ball, what changes next? Again, it’s back to preserving authenticity.
5. The sound of a wood bat hitting a baseball is far, far, far nicer than the ping of an aluminum barrel. Let’s face it, there is no sound more unique in sports than the crack of a wood bat hitting a baseball. It’s the iconic noise of the great America past time—for the past, present, and future.
6. The feel of the wood bat contacting a baseball in the sweet spot is superior to that of a metal bat.
7. The look of a wood bat is also a lot more classic and appealing than that of a metal bat.
8. They are a lot cheaper. Wood bats are a lot cheaper than metal ones, at least they are if you purchase them with us. Our goal is to produce quality wood baseball bats at a very affordable price. By doing this, we hope that more and more amateurs will play the game the way it was meant to be played, with quality, refined lumber, skillfully shaped into the form of a baseball bat. You would have to buy 10 of our pro-grade maple bats at $49.99 a piece before you spent the same amount of money you would for a high dollar metal bat.
9. There’s never any need for regulations. Metal baseball bats have to be regulated depending on the league of play. There are standardizations in the form of USA, USSSA, BBCOR, etc. But with a wood bat, you can use it at any level of the sport.
10. Metal bats are being made to hit like wood these days anyway. This point is paired with the previous one. Part of the reason these regulations exist for metal bats is to try and make them hit as close to a wood bat as possible. Prior to the regulation of metal bats, they hit with crazy high exit velocities, leaving many pitchers injured as a result. This came from the trampolining effect produced by the thin aluminum walls of these bats. Since that time, metal bats have to operate under certain restrictions in order to make the game safe and fair. Just use a wood bat, and you don’t have to worry about all that.
11. Wood bats aren’t affected by cold weather. This point isn’t as widely known as some of the others. But did you know that cold weather doesn’t affect a wood bat? Apparently, many metal bats are not recommended for use under 60° F. In cold conditions, light weight metal bats can actually crack in the barrel. And we all know that fall and spring baseball in many regions of the country can reach temperatures that low.
12. There’s no break-in period. Wood bats have a nice pop from the very get go and all the way through. There’s no break-in period like with metal bats.
But Wait, Don’t Wood Bats Break?
Perhaps this is what you’re thinking. Maybe you want to stick with metal because metal bats don’t break. While it’s true that wood bats can break and metal bats usually don’t, at least not until much later, they don’t break as often as some would have you believe. We admit that the occasional broken wood bat is just part of the game. But if you take care of your wood bat, and you are smart with your hitting, you’re not likely to break a wood bat very often.
Tony Gwynn, one of the game’s greatest hitters, took really good care of his bats, like so many of the greats before him. He was rumored to have used the same bat for an entire season once, and he averaged around 460 at bats a year. How long does it take for amateurs like us to have that many at bats? On top of that, most of us aren’t facing three-digit pitches and crazy good sliders and breaking balls. Thing is, most wood bats break when you chase outside or really inside pitches. So, it stands to reason that using a wood bat will also make you a better, more disciplined hitter, if you’re worried about breaking it. Ultimately, if you break a wood bat, you can just get another one. That’s why we keep them so affordable. Remember the cost of our high-grade maple bats are as much as 4 to 5 times cheaper than some high-end metal bats. What’s more, we’ve found a way to keep your wood bat from ever breaking in the first place. Read more about our Bat Cast™ product below by selecting the “Check it Out” button.
