Ever notice this often?

[kylehess10]

I was doing some photomatch work on a Miguel Tejada bat, and while going through one of his at-bats on MLB.tv, I noticed he was using a bat that was already cracked. I'm curious to know how a player DOESN'T notice this. I've actually cracked 4 of my bats in the past month, and it's an obvious feeling and sound. Anybody else notice this before while watching a game? I know you probably can't notice a hairline crack, but check this one out....this one should be pretty obvious to spot out:

[favrenvikes09]

Maybe it was his lucky bat and he had the batboy glue it up to keep using it lol. I know waaay back in the old days players would tape, glue, or nail bats together to keep using them. Itd be interesting to see how many players use cracked bats without knowing. This past year at one of the minor league games I was at Angel Morales a Twins minor leaguer barely cracked his bat and then the next ab he used it and hit a HR with it. It was awesome, he gave me that bat following the game.

[STLHAMMER32]

I remember Mark McGwire cracked his bat during the 99 HR Derby and jus kept using it anyway. It was a hairline crack tho....this thing looks pretty obvious if that is truly a crack. Sometimes you can crack a wood bat and not realize it but if you tap it on the ground you can usually tell. Kyle, what happened in this at bat? Did he make contact?

[kylehess10]

favrenvikes- I tried that about a month ago. I had a cracked bat and I nailed it back together and it was pretty tough and felt back to normal, but when I brought it to the cages the next day, it broke into 2 pieces.

stilhammer- Right after I got the screenshot, he fouled a pitched off which cracked the bat even more severly and he switched bats

[STLHAMMER32]

favrenvikes- I tried that about a month ago. I had a cracked bat and I nailed it back together and it was pretty tough and felt back to normal, but when I brought it to the cages the next day, it broke into 2 pieces.

stilhammer- Right after I got the screenshot, he fouled a pitched off which cracked the bat even more severly and he switched bats

He must have loved that bat is my only guess.....could he really not have seen that? I don't think it's possible to miss that.

[10thMan]

Kyle, Nice catch! I`ve heard players (including V. Guerrero) Crack Bats & return with the same bat only to finish it off making the next contact. I heard it too may times, then began to pay close attention afterwards, sure enough...they do it.


Nice Pic!!!


Sean

[Manram]

Nice picture Kyle. I have never seen this before. And why would they keep using a cracked bat, when they have like 3 back ups and more in their lockers.................

[tigerhidden]

Kyle was helping me photo match the bat. While it definitely looks cracked already in that picture, it's not, it's just a thick area of dirt and mota stick. The bat is a mlb authenticated Ty Wigginton bat used by Miguel Tejada. It was cracked in the 8th inning on September 21, 2009. He hit a HR with this bat in the 1st inning.