Gwynn & Ripken talk about their bats

[kingjammy24]

excerpt from this interesting interview:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...ynn/index.html

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Gwynn: ..When I first signed I went to Walla Walla, Washington, my first minor-league stop, the shortest bat they had was 34 inches. I just played a college season with a 32-inch aluminum bat. And now I'm playing pro ball with a 34-inch bat and I'm actually hitting home runs. I'm thinking, I'm not even this type of hitter. What happens when I get a wood bat that's actually the size I want to swing? Our first road trip we went to Eugene, Ore., and I bought two Mike Ivey, 32-inch, 0-16s at a sporting goods store. When I got those bats that's when I knew I'd be able to play professional ball. Because I finally got a bat in my hand that I could handle. And it was a whole lot easier to move the ball around. Because that's the type of hitter I was. When I was hitting home runs with that 34 I knew that was not the type of hitter I was. I was a line-drive hitter. So once I bought those bats I knew I would get there.

SI: And you stayed with that light bat your whole career.

Gwynn: Yeah, pretty much.

SI: And you went up a little bit, didn't you?

Ripken: 35-33 was usually it. Sometimes I took Eddie Murray's club up there. Sometimes I couldn't get the thin-handled bat to work so I took Eddie's, that's a bigger handle, bigger head, up there. It would work temporarily. You'd have to go back to your other one.

Gwynn: What was your other one?

Ripken: When I first got to the big leagues it was an M-159. And that happened by accident. It was pretty cool. Same sort of thing. P-72s, M-110s, 0-16s, maybe three models. They all seemed to be like clubs. Then you had a chance to order your own bats and I was swinging an M-110 but I still didn't feel like it was working for me. And Louisville sent me the wrong model. They sent me M-159s by mistake. And it was my first pro homer. I went all of rookie ball without a homer. I hit one in my first intrasquad game and thought, "Oh, this fence is pretty reachable." And then I didn't hit one for 60 games. And then I went to instructional league and hit a couple of home runs, so I brought that bat into A ball into the Florida State League. And probably halfway through the season I still hadn't had a homer. And they sent me the wrong bats. So the first night I got them I said, let me go up there and swing them because that's all I've got. And I hit a home run to snap a 0-0 tie in the 12th inning for my first pro homer. I started liking the feel. A thin-handled bat worked for me, almost felt like the bat almost bent in your hand. You could throw the bat head, kind of snap it out there. And I liked that sensation. So I went up to the M-159s and started to get an inch thicker and the P-72s I migrated to because it had thinner handle and barrel was farther down.
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rudy.

[ironmanfan]

Rudy...good stuff ! I appreciate all your contributions to this board!

Bill

[geoff]

Good to know about stuff like this.Thanks for the info.

Geoff