User:Allysilva/draft article on phoenix bats

=Phoenix Bat Company= The Phoenix Bat Company is located outside of Columbus, Ohio in Plain City and has been producing maple, ash, and birch wood bats for more than a decade. The company has been growing since 1996 when it was founded by Charley “Lefty” Trudeau and received approval for professional usage in 2000. The Phoenix Bat company now produces more than 13,000 bats a year, from vintage replicas and personalized gifts to wooden bats for Major Leaguers including Vladimir Guerrero, Jake Fox, Magglio Ordonez, Miguel Cabrera and Billy Butler.

History
Charley Trudeau was restoring old houses in Central Ohio when he joined the Ohio Village Muffins, an Ohio Historical Society baseball team that plays the game according to 1860s rules. At that time, he also owned a small woodshop and in 1996, after five years of playing for the Ohio Village Muffins, they asked him to make some wooden baseball bats, typical of the 1860s. From there Trudeau’s small woodshop and hobby turned into a passion and eventually the Phoenix Bat Company.

Production
The Phoenix Bat Company chooses the finest quality of Rock Maple and Northern White Ash wood and have been referred to as the pickiest of the bat manufacturers. They take great pride and care in their product from start to finish. This is clearly evident by the fact that they only cut the wood once an order has been placed to protect the wood from excessive moisture or dryness. Once an order is placed, the billet of wood is shaped on a computer-controlled lathe, one of the most sophisticated in the industry. Phoenix uses a Locatelli lathe, a high-end Italian woodworking tool that only three U.S. manufacturers have and required a 10 day apprenticeship training program oversees. The lathe cuts the bat and sands it with amazing precision and it is then colored and hand dipped in a clear finish, becoming hard as a rock when dry. The bat is then ready to be engraved and shipped to order.

Types of Bats
Wood bats are mainly used for training and developing a players swing and hitting technique. Wooden bats teach a hitter how to find and hit from the bat’s sweet spot. It forces the hitter to wait for a pitch instead of reaching for it. Metal bats are more forgiving and cover many flaws in a player’s swing. For this reason, hitters and hitting coaches prefer wooden baseball bats for developing hitters. Also, for this reason, hitters swing wooden bats to prepare for Big Leagues.

Phoenix uses the highest quality of Rock Maple and Northern White Ash to produce some of the finest, strongest wood bats in the industry. The Rock Maple will create a stronger bat, providing very little give or flex and more pop for bigger, more powerful hits. The Northern White Ash will produce a less dense bat, with more give or flex. Ash bats are especially great for a hitter using a wood bat for the first time. It does not have as much pop but is more forgiving for a hitter having trouble hitting the sweet spot.

Phoenix Bats produces not only their professional series of wooden bats, but also wood softball bats, youth wood bats, vintage baseball bats, fungo, or training, bats and trophy bats. They also offer a 10-day money-back guarantee to ensure that each bat is made to their customers’ specifications.

Today
Bats made by the Phoenix Bat Company are used by all sorts of baseball players, from little league to the big leagues. After selling their product by word of mouth, Phoenix Bats were approved to use in the Major Leagues in 2000. The company is also active in their community and giving back. They give the sawdust generated by the lithe in the production process to a local farmer for bedding and extra scrap wood goes to local businesses for firing machinery. Phoenix Bats also donates bats to the American Patriot Program, which supports the families of fallen military members and is a proud partner with Elliot Mast and the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, supporting the “For the Kids” Campaign.