Saturday, June 9, 2012

Cracked

I can't recall many (...or any) other cards that feature a cracked bat like this one...





This is Moises Alou's Upper Deck 2005 card.  It looks like the bat is split right down the middle.  Pretty cool looking shot.


Now a question: How many of you have had a bat crack on you?  Or even better, how many of you have played with a wooden bat?


I played Little League in the early and mid seventies, and all we had were wood bats (aluminum bats were just starting to arrive when I was done playing).  I never had a bat shatter into pieces like they do today, but I did have bats crack on me.  And boy was that depressing.  It was like losing a good friend to have your favorite bat crack.  We would take the bat into the garage and put a couple screws in it to try and save it, but it was never the same after that.


But those of you who played ball in the '80s and beyond, was it all aluminum for you?  I don't think WW Jr. has ever held a wood bat, let alone use one in a game.  Maybe it's my age, but the "ping" of the bat just seems wrong.

5 comments:

  1. Taking the bat, holding it barrel end and tapping the knob on the plate. Nothing is worse then when you hear and feel the buzz telling you the bat's hitting days are over.

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  2. We played only with wooden bats as kids in the '70s. Aluminum was for leagues, they were way too expensive to buy just playing in the yard.

    We thought aluminum was weird but cool. The ball would fly!

    But every day in the yard or at the park we'd use wood bats. If I remember correctly, I had two or three break on me. Nothing shattered. You'd just here an odd sound, look down at your bat and see a crack in it.

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  3. I had a wooden bat that I often used until about five or six years ago. Until one of my friends dropped it on the cement, anyways. I tried taping the handle back on, but the bat was never the same.

    I'm a little more used to aluminum bats because of Little League and everything, but I always liked using a wooden bat when I was just playing around at the park.

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  4. Closest thing I've ever experienced is breaking drumsticks. Definitely a weird sensation.

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  5. I never had one break in a game because I was in little league and no one threw that hard. But when I was older, I used to go to the batting cage and use a wooden bat. I thought it somehow gave me a better idea how I was hitting. Probably did nothing for me. Anyway, it only lasted a few trips because it was a cheap wood bat. After it cracked, I just left it in the trash can outside the cage.

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