Baseball Bat Research Paper

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Louisville Slugger has impacted the evolution of the baseball bat by showing continued excellence through the years. They have shown this excellence by making changes to be current with the world. One change they have made is adding Maple bats into their product line even if they don’t agree with it. White Ash was the main source of what bats were made out of until Barry Bonds, in 2001, broke the single season home run record. His bat was made of Maple. Now the market is close to split on the type of bat sold. Both of the types of bats have positives and negatives. The positives of White ash are that it is a strong timber, it is lighter than Maple, and it has a flexible quality that Maple doesn’t have. The negative is that after extensive …show more content…

The CNC machine is programmed to do this with special lathes to get the specific cut of a baseball bat (Oldham). The CNC machine was starting to be used by Louisville Slugger in 2002 (Terdiman). “...a CNC machine is programmed with over 2,200 bat styles, all developed with major leaguers” (Goulet). Then the knobs are cut off and sanded with a 80 grit sandpaper, and the bat is weighed. The bat goes through many cycles of different sanders until it gets to the logo stage. This is where the Louisville Slugger logo is burned while applying pressure onto the side of the bat, and thus, it is sanded again (Oldham). The next part is the look of the bat other than the logo. Some bats get a natural or flame burned finish (Oldham). The bats can also be painted with different colors of lacquer, which is like a strong paint. The bat can be all black, red, brown, white, half natural wood and half black, and many other different styles. Following, the bats are hung to dry. In addition, if a player is under contract, their name can be printed onto the bat (Cantu). Lastly, the bats are packed and shipped off to where they need to be. One man can make 200 to 300 bats a day (Oldham). This process is a lot more efficient than the process when Bud made his first

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