Your baseball bat is your primary weapon when it comes to scoring points on the offense, so just like any other piece of equipment, baseball bats require maintenance and special care in order to make them last as long as possible. You want your bat in perfect condition for as long as you can, so you don’t have to keep buying bats.
This guide from The Baseball Reviews Online will cover some handy tips you can use to lengthen the life of your bat, as well as give you a better respect for your “weapon”.
Team Bats
While some coaches want to use the same bat for the entire team, if you want to be able to make them last longer, get your own bat. When you use team bats, their life expectancy is short because you have to think about how many times that bat is coming into contact with something just from you alone, then multiply that number by your team members. This can shorten the life of a baseball bat very fast, and you and your team will go through a lot of them.
Don’t Use When It’s Too Cold
This is especially important when you have to play with wooden bats, as they’re susceptible to cold damage more than aluminum bats. Unfortunately, some ball games are played when the temperature in the early spring, or late fall are actually below 60 degrees and you can’t help it. Try to limit how much you use this bat though to add some valuable swings to your bat’s life.
Hot and Cold
When your bat is stored in extremely hot temperatures, the material can swell, and when it’s too cold it will shrink. For wooden bats, this combined with a lack of moisture that the bat can absorb can cause major damage, from cracks, and even breaks that you won’t be able to see until you hit a ball. On metal bats, this makes them weaker and deteriorates the amount of quality of the alloy. Extremely hot use can also add to dents being made in the bat, which can destroy it quickly.
Don’t use Rubber Caged Balls
Always use leather covered balls when you’re playing because this will make sure that it’s not too dense. Leather covered baseballs, as well as the softballs, generally have a rubber core, and a leather layer which absorbs more shock than doesn’t offer as much resistance to contact made by your bat.
Check for Cracks and More
Always be sure to check your bat frequently for damage, because dents and cracks as mentioned above earlier can not only destroy your game, but it can also ruin your bat, and when your bat breaks, it can cause potential damage to you as well. Also, be sure to wipe off your bat frequently. Oils that are in your hands (sometimes when we’re not in a game or active practice, we may not use batting gloves) can cause damage to the hardwood your bat is made out of. Another good tip is that after each hit, rotate your bat a little after each contact (about a quarter turn). The downside with this method though is that you may not always be swinging with your label up like you’re supposed to, but the bat will last much longer.
