A number of sports are distinctive by the gear that player use for them, such as golf clubs, tennis racquets, and of course, baseball bats. Baseball is popular around the world, especially in the United States and Japan, and any player will need a bat, or a catcher’s mitt to play this game. Professionals and casual players alike will need that gear, and there is no shortage of sports goods stores that an interested player may visit.
A baseball player may make use of either wooden bats (often made with ash wood) or metal bats, based on preference. However, these bats may be modified for further performance, such as rolled Miken bats or bat shaving. What does it mean to shave or roll a baseball bat, anyway, and how does it alter the performance of the bat? Rolled Miken bats or rolled Adidas bats are not allowed in sanctioned games, but rolled and shaved bats may be permitted in casual games or for practice (players might refrain from using shaved bats in practice, though).
Shaving Baseball Bats
Metal baseball bats are not completely hollow; inside their lightweight metal bodies, these bats have padding on the inside to give them their strength, and this material might be shaved away somewhat. To shave a baseball bat, such as shaved Miken bats, an interested patron may bring their metal bat to a local shaving service, where the bat will be placed on a lathe table. The metal bat’s end cap is removed, which exposes its interior. Now, the bat will be slowly fed toward a rotating grinder surface, and a grinder will shave away a few ounces of material from the bat’s interior. The end cap is then replaced.
Shaved Miken bats, for example, may offer higher performance than regular metal bats, since just enough material is removed so that they can send a ball further with each strike. It may be noted that if too much material is removed, the bat becomes too fragile and may shatter when used, and padding material should not be removed from the bat’s handle for the same reason. Players may also note that shaved bats should not be used in temperatures lower than 65 degrees Fahrenheit or so. And while these shaved bats are not allowed for use in sanctioned games, they might do fine for casual and informal games, where league rules and regulations are not necessarily enforced. Players may enjoy bolstered performance from these bats anytime they play.
Rolled Miken Bats and More
What about rolled Miken bats and other brands? Wooden baseball bats do not have a hollow interior that the owner will shave material from. Instead, the owner of a wooden bat may subject it to pressurized rolling to enhance its performance, and allow a player to strike a ball further with it during gameplay.
How does this work? Being made of real wood, these bats have natural fibers in their bodies, and those fibers will stretch, bend, and break during use as they hit baseballs. This is to be desired, and after a few hundred strikes, a bat will be fully broken in, and it can strike balls further. A baseball player may greatly prize their fully broken-in bats, but this process can be expedited with bat rolling services.
A bat rolling service will accept the wooden bat of a patron, then send it through some rollers, which distress the bat enough to simulate regular use. Care will be taken so that the bat is not damaged in this process. The end result is a bat that hits like a fully broken in one, and while these bat are not allowed at sanctioned games (experts may spot them on sight), such bats may be used for casual games or practice. A player may not want to risk their prized bats in practice, so they can roll wooden bats and use them as proxies during practice, since they will have similar performance to bats that were broken in normally. Rolled baseball bats might even be found online for convenience with a search such as “rolled Easton baseball bats” if a buyer can’t easily find bat rolling services in their area.