Expiremental L/S ?

[MikeSharon]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Louisville-Slugger-Hickory-Experimental-Bat-Very-RARE_W0QQitemZ130180770728QQihZ003QQcategoryZ60596 QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
This auctions is for an Expiremental L/S have never seen this before and was wondering if others had any info on these bats or how many of them are out there
thanks
george.sharon@cyfairvfd.org

[BMH]

It's a finger-joint bat, named after the coupling process of the different types of woods. How many are out there??? Who knows, the idea never worked and we stopped work on the project. Personally, his asking price is outrageous. I threw away probably a dozen of those bats when I first got here.

[suave1477]

BMH out of curiousity by putting together peices of wood for a bat like this doesnt that play into the integrity of the bat holding together.

Wouldnt that make the bat a bit weaker and easier to break?

Also do you know what the reason is. why these bats never made it?

[bigtruck260]

A guy at a card show in Cleveland in the 90's once told me that after he was done fixing cracked bats - they were actually stronger than before they broke. I have always wanted to test that theory myself...

In the spring and summer, I buy a few pro wood bats and take them to the cages. I bust them all the time...it's actually pretty dangerous, so I make sure I am the only one within shatter ratio. One of these days, I am going to have Jeff Scott put one back together and try it out in a buddy's indoor cage. That way, nobody gets the Steve Yeager treatment.:rolleyes:

If these bats were considered at one point, I would guess that the adhesive repair theory is somewhat true.

Dave

[suave1477]

I guess anything is possible but I cant imagine a bats integrity being stronger once repaired. Once there has been a break in it from its natural state automatically by laws of physics would make it weaker.

Just some examples:
If you break a bone in your body even after you put it in a cast and it heals it is still susceptible to break again
When your car gets into an accident and the metal is bent, whether the repair shop bends it back or cuts that area away and replaces it, your car most likley will take on even more damage if hit in that area again due to the metal being weakend.

[BMH]

They were actually really strong, I don't think we broke very many. The main problem was vibrations. You hit the ball wrong and it would sting like hell.

[staindsox]

I think it is also/would be an illegal bat. I thought a bat company did this in the 1930s...I want to say it was for Jim Bottomley, but they were later banned. You can't glue bats together because they actually do make the bat stronger.

Chris

[BMH]

True, the rules do state a bat has to be a solid piece of wood. They were made more for the HS/college players.

[gameused]

Here's a Hoosier finger joint bat made for Sammy Sosa while playing for the Cubs, several years ago this bat was for sale on John Taube's website, I think it was listed as a BP bat.

Bobby

[thome25.com]

I think I saw another Sosa bat that was made of more than one type of wood in the past.. Hard on the outside, soft "cork" like wood on the interior. Not sure if it is a similar process...

[10thMan]

Bobby, The Sosa bat is cool! I wouldn`t mind having it, I`ll take a cork model too.
Sean

[gameused]

Bobby, The Sosa bat is cool! I wouldn`t mind having it, I`ll take a cork model too.
Sean

Sean,

I agree! On the Sosa corked bat incident, this is what I was told a few years ago by a friend who was a member of the Cubs staff.

The person told me the day the corked bat incident happened the clubhouse personnel immediately took away several Sosa corked bats in the clubhouse and hid them. MLB officials grabbed the rest of Sosa bats and x-rayed each one and of course did not find anything wrong with the rest of his bats. Pretty cool story from a very reliable source that I will not name.

Bobby

Here's a pic of the Sosa corked bat swing:

[Nnunnari]

Hoosier's made those "finger joint" bats for years now- I believe they're not game legal but used in BP because the barrel won't flake.

[earlywynnfan]

As far as strength goes, plywood is just wood chips glued together, and it's a heck of a lot stronger than a sheet of real wood.

Ken