Taped batting practice bats?

[cjclong]

There has been discussion of bats used for batting practice being taped on the barrel. I would be interested in knowing WHY a player would want to do this? I have seen a fair number on major league games in the last few years and have watched players for a number of teams take batting practice. I have made it a point to check what bats some players I like were using and have never noticed a bat being used in bp with a taped barrel. That's not to say they aren't, but I just haven't observed it. Several years ago I bought a Reggie Jackson bat that showed tape marks on the bat and the seller said he might have used it for batting practice, but this was the first I've ever heard of it.

[89ASMVPBats]

Cjclong,

I began looking into taped batting practice bats a few months ago when I purchased a Bo Jackson batting practice bat. From what I can tell, taping the barrell of the bat would prevent the grain from separating and lengthen the life of the bat. In turn, players would not have to purchase as many bats. Fewer and fewer players tape their bats today, perhaps because their large salaries enabled them to purchase as many bats as they need (A-Rod, for example, uses a different model LS for batting practice than he does in the game). Today's players also know that if a bat breaks, they can sell it to game used collectors like us. For what it's worth, there are some great pictures of players using taped batting practice bats in the 1989 Topps baseball set.

Drew

[Vintagedeputy]

Here's another theory - ballplayers are aware of ball marks just like we are. By taping a bat with lets say, white tape, a player can take BP and see exactly where on the bat he is hitting the ball. He can make sure that he is getting the fat part of the bat on the ball.

[Carlevv]

The reason you dont see as many taped bats in BP these days is because of maple bats. A lot of guys are using them for BP because there is no grain to seperate. Jose Canseco used a John Flahrety SAM BAT for a whole year's worth of BP in 2000 or 2001. It was a brown bat with a ton of seam marks but never broke.

[Gabby8]

Just to put it out there, maple bats indeed do have grains, but they are different from ash bats. I am pretty sure that taping bats was primarily done on ash bats, because after some use the ash grains will seperate (I think this is called "dead wood") and sort of flake off. The tape will keep the bat together.

Maple bats don't really "flake" like ash bats, as the wood is much more hard and dense. Lots of folks like to use black bats, because the ball marks are much more visible so you can see where you are making most of your contact.

[MSpecht]

The practice of taping bats for use in batting practice is basically to "get in the zone" when hitting... Much like golfers who use impact tape on their clubs on the driving range to see exactly where they are striking the ball, baseball players tape the bat on the sweet spot which visually gives them a "target' if you will... with the white taped bat, and the white ball, the object of this type of batting practice is thus to go "white-on-white" in BP, and hopefully carry that into the game.

Mike Jackitout7@aol.com

[Carlevv]

Gabby, maple bats DO NOT flake or get dead wood. Mspect, what was that? Im not a know it all guy but what you said is way off why guys tape bats. Im not sure who told you that but thats false in every way. If a guy is in the Big Leagues he's not having a hard time hitting the ball on the sweet spot in BP. Sorry for the rant.

[metsbats]

Here's one players perspective. I just got off the phone with Ed Hearn having asked him why BP bat barrels were taped. He's asked me to guess first and I mentioned the zoning reason. Ed chuckled and stated that he personally never taped the barrel of his bats to gauge where the ball was hitting the barrel but to preserve the life of the bat. Typically he would save the bats with the least amount of grain for game use and the bats with lot of grains for BP. The bats with the multiple grains when it was repeatedly hit with the ball would incur grain separation faster therefore taping the barrel would prolong the bats life.

This of course is just one player perspective and it's not to say that there are players out there who may be taping bat barrels for zoning purposes.

David

[Gabby8]

Gabby, maple bats DO NOT flake or get dead wood.

I am aware of that. If you read my post again, you will see that I was comparing maple and ash bats - and players would tape ash bats (before maple was very popular) because of "deadwood" and flaking. At least the reason I taped bats was to keep them together (I have never taped a maple bat).

[soxbats]

Here's one players perspective. I just got off the phone with Ed Hearn having asked him why BP bat barrels were taped. He's asked me to guess first and I mentioned the zoning reason. Ed chuckled and stated that he personally never taped the barrel of his bats to gauge where the ball was hitting the barrel but to preserve the life of the bat. Typically he would save the bats with the least amount of grain for game use and the bats with lot of grains for BP. The bats with the multiple grains when it was repeatedly hit with the ball would incur grain separation faster therefore taping the barrel would prolong the bats life.

This of course is just one player perspective and it's not to say that there are players out there who may be taping bat barrels for zoning purposes.

David

In my experience, David (and Ed for that matter) are right on. One of the first bats I ever got was a Mike Brumley bat at Red Sox spring training. He handed it to me cracked and I asked him why it was wrapped in tape on the barrel. (I thought it was so the ball would not fly as far so players could not hit them out in BP and the Red Sox would not have to buy more balls) He said that he got so few bats that he wanted to make sure the bats that he ordered would last as long as possible and the tape stopped them from having grain separation.

As an aside, I left the tape on the bat until I received my SI baseball issue. In the article on the Sox it said that Mike Brumley's camp was so tough his bats came in labeled Mike Bumley. I peeled off the tap and sure enough I had a Bumley bat.

Always looking for Red Sox game used bats, soxbats@aol.com