User:Bwiley12/sandbox

History
In the 1850’s when baseball was a rather new and developing sport in the United States, players were expected to bring their own bats. At this time there was no rules on size, shape, or weight of the bat and each bat varied greatly. It did not take long for the players to figure out that rounded bats performed best in games. Players began to experiment with different types of wood in order to gain the upper hand on their competition. In 1859 The Professional National Association of Baseball Players Governing Committee voted in favor of a league wide barrel width restriction of two and one half inches. At this point in time there was still no limit on bat length but this new restriction blazed a path for many more to follow. In order to maximize hitting surface, players would have woodworkers reconstruct their bats with wider handles since the barrels were now limited. Players soon found the flaw in the wider handle as it made gripping the bat extremely difficult. In the years approaching the Civil War, many players began to use cord or string to wrap around the handle of their bat in order to help with grip. This method quickly became extremely popular and is the inspiration behind grip used on modern bats. In 1869 the first rule outlining a bat length limitation was adopted. The rule stated: “The bat shall be…. not more than 42 inches in length.” oddly enough this regulation has stood the test of time and is still implemented in gameplay to this day. After this new rule in 1869 it would be over a decade before the next big event in baseball bat history would take place. Since the adoption of the new rules regarding length, woodworkers strived to emerge as a front runner in baseball bat manufacturing. In 1884 a 17 year old boy by the name of John Hillerich watched Louisville player Pete Browning shatter his bat during a game. After the game, young John approached Browning and invited him back to his fathers woodworking shop. After carefully selecting a prime piece of white ash, under the close supervision of Browning, John and his father began to construct the new bat. The next day Browning had an outstanding three for three performance in his game and talk of the new bat began to spread. This was the beginning of the most famous baseball bat manufacturer in history, Louisville Slugger. In the 1890’s the next big bat regulation was adopted. This new rule states that bats can no longer be flat on one side and can not be sawed off at the end. The new rule also increased the maximum bat width to two and three quarters inches at its widest point. Around the early nineteen hundreds the modern wooden bat began to take its shape. Excluding minor changes in order to designate uniqueness, modern wood bats look extremely similar to those used over one hundred years ago.

The Rise of Aluminum Bats
The first patent for a metal baseball bat was issued to a Mr. William Shroyer in 1924. Despite Shroyer’s breakthrough, metal baseball bats were not seen in the game of baseball until the 1970’s when Worth introduced the games first aluminum bat. In 1978 Louisville Slugger began to manufacture their own aluminum bats. In 1971 Little League Baseball approved the use of aluminum bats. In response to the rapidly growing popularity of aluminum bats, NCAA Baseball approved their use in 1974. From 1975 until the mid 90’s aluminum bats evolved almost unsupervised. It wasn't until 1996 that all bats were required to meet a certain BESR ; or ball exit speed ratio, standard. This rule was implemented because a great increase in injuries were being observed because balls were being hit too hard for players to react in time to protect themselves. In the early 2000’s many leagues including NCAA adopted weight drop limits in order to limit bat speed. These new limits stated that a bats weight had to be 3 ounces smaller than the length in inches of the bat. In 2009 fully composite bats were banned completely because it was found that they break in with use and no longer meet league specifications. The next big change was not seen until 2012 when the BBCOR restrictions were universally implemented. BBCOR stands for the “ball bat coefficient of restitution”. One big long boring math equation later, the BBCOR standard basically states that a bat can not generate an exit speed of more than 97 miles per hour from a 70 mile per hour pitch. These new standards have dramatically decreased the performance gap between metal and wood bats. While metal bats still outperform wood bats, many experts are expecting a full return of only wood bats in the near future.