Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Aldeer General Forum Does a $300 BB bat really make a difference?

Theres ALOT of good composite bats out there and every college does use them.

My next door neighbor is a scout for the Cleveland Indians and he claims he is far more impressed by a kid that hits the ball with a wood bat than a kid that can smash a ball with a high end $400 bat. If they make it to the pros the kid that is comfortable with a wood bat will be better off than a kid hitting composite bats his whole life.

4-5 Years ago Alabama baseball was in an exclusive rights deal with Nike. Nike released the restriction on Alabama from using other bat manufacturers because the Nike bat was proven it would not perform... So if a major manufacturer like Nike is willing to release someone from contract restriction because their equipment is inferior how can you say the bats don't matter? From what I have seen most college teams these days are using Eastons & Demarinis. So all colleges are basically using the same bats.

Can we please stop acting like this modern day youth ball thing is normal?

Ha!...saying I have a serious problem with it is a massive understatement. It is the most comprehensive, all-encompassing, grossly consuming, widespread idolatry that has ever existed on the planet. Now...that better explains how I feel about it.

Next time our preacher uses some trite, harmless example of the idols in our lives during one of his sermons, I'm going to interrupt and ask for a show of hands from everyone in the room who spent more than one day this week talking about it, practicing it, buying stuff for it, going to one of the 9 different academies that have recently sprung up in our city, planned a vacation around a tournament, didn't come to church for 20 Sundays in a row last year during travel ball season, etc. You know, if we're gonna talk about inexplicably obessessive idolatry, let's just cut the crap and use an example that 400 of the 500 people in this room can relate to. Even the preacher, sir!

It's truly not a personal vendetta, but it affects me personally in that my job requires me to interact with clientele face-to-face, and literally for 9 months of the year it's just about wholly impossible to nail down any family for 30 minutes any day of the week because they're always at the ball fields. And I teach a Sunday school class of about 50 adults (ages 30-50), and I'm not fudging to say that on any Sunday during the warm months we may have 5 to 10 couples gone to tournaments. I sit before class and listen to multiple conversations about the double, triple, even quadruple headers their kids played in yesterday. What really catches my attention though is how the parents just gleam with excitement about it. I'm sorry, it's just like nothing I've ever seen. Heck, when we were kids, our parents probably didn't even come to half our games, and they were darn sure never at a practice (which we only had maybe two per week?). And my dad would've throat punched me if he thought I even had a dream about a $300 composite baseball bat???!!!...yet today we have dad's bragging and competing about who'd kid has the nicest, most expensive bat(s). Can we please stop acting like this modern day youth ball thing is normal???

Peach, not trying to be a dick, but your kid is wrong. The MLB HR record would be way over 100 today with aluminum bats & there would be 3-4 guys a year hitting over 400.

A $300 bat will hit a baseball on average ~5-10% further/harder than a $20 Walmart bat.
I don't disagree with your statement, but for my son it did not matter a bit. I purchased a very expensive hard maple bat for him to use at a professional show case. He broke it on the first swing and had to pick up a junk wooden bat to finish his session. He continued to hit ball after ball out of the park. With that being said, one of his college team mates came out of high school as one of the nations all time best high school hitters. He continued that success through college and everyone thought he was going to make a great pro player. When he had to start using wooden bats in the minor leagues, he could not hit a ball deeper than the warning track. Hince, he only lasted one year because of the bat.
So yes a bat can matter to some hitters but you are not allowed to use aluminum as a pro. A guy I coached and played with is in the high school coaches hall of fame and even though retired, he still is a very reputable hitting instructor. He will tell you straight up that hitters are born and I totally agree. When parents call him and ask for hitting instructions, the first thing he asks them is - Can your son hit? If they say no -- he replies: Sorry, I cant help him!

So its other peoples fault for you not being able to fulfill your job dutys because they are off at the ballpark with their kids playing youth sports?

One thing about it , a $300 dollar bat won't fix a $3 dollar swing. :p

Chad

You cannot persuade me that this many parents are selflessly sacrificing their own lives to cater to their children in such a manner.

Sounds like he would prefer everyone pull their kids out of youth sports, buy them a $400 video game console and 25 or so of the $50-$75 video games that they want. Then you'd have to get the kids bags of chips, snacks, and cokes, and one of the fancy video game chairs with the speakers right behind the kid's head. In the end, you'd wind up with an overweight, deaf kid, whose thumbs are swollen and calloused from the video game controller.

how many of you experts played baseball after HS? I dont want peaked in HS rob lowe

how many of you experts played baseball after HS? I dont want peaked in HS rob lowe

What does this have to do with a $300 bat vs $50 bat?

Oh, I do fulfill my job duties, that's not the problem...only a symptom. It's a belabored effort for sure though. And I don't suggest they are horrible parents...not sure how we'd quantify/qualify that either. I'm not suggesting they are super parents for their hyper-involvement, nor horrible parents for their pushy insistence that their kid plays. I don't believe either of those things. I think we both know what I'm saying, no sense in trying to deflect or counterpoint. It isn't even a baseball thing, nor would it be a reflection of the specific hobby involved no matter what it was. The whole thing baffles me for a few reasons:

People are more selfish than this--it's just the nature of humanity. One of the greatest truisms I've ever heard is "People do what they want to do." You cannot persuade me that this many parents are selflessly sacrificing their own lives to cater to their children in such a manner. Parents don't display this same level of dedication to anything else, EVEN THEIR KIDS. Parents WANT to do this, for themselves, and really that's at the heart of what I'm missing. I'm most curious to know what the parent (the adult) REALLY likes about it? Again, you won't convince me, and the deepest level, it's all for the kid(s) and this is just a duty that a parent does. I'm willing to concede that to an extent, but what drives such a large percentage of the adults in a community to give so much of their life to a child's game? Y'all are seriously into this stuff, I mean like crazy about it. Is it like the character in the cable commercials, "Peaked in high school Rob Lowe?" It's just a level of commitment and participation like nothing else. If it were a small number of isolated adults (like it was when we were young) I could understand it, it wouldn't even seem weird. Am I just the only one who genuinely realizes how many people (moms included, not just dads like it used to be) are at the fields every night??? Seriously y'all, it's like half the town is there every night, every week, for 3/4 of the year. What gives??