[Vigilanteman]

It would be interesting to see the data on where bats break with the resulting splintering. Part of what gives maple the mass is the resin or sap in the natural tree.

I'd be willing to bet that the root cause of splintering is more of a function of inadequate or uneven drying than in the type of wood itself, though the natural saps would, of course, contribute to the functions of wood aging.

I remember seeing a progrqam on how they made the famed Louisville sluggers as a boy-- major care put into selecting the wood and aging it properly. Just knowing how companies think today on keeping low inventories and rushing products through the market, I'm almost certain nowhere near the same care is put into making the modern bat, maple, ash or hickory notwithstanding.

[SnakeDoctor]

My understanding is that maple bats tend to break along the grain, and ash bats tend to break at the handle.

I would think that the type of breakage has a lot to do with the hardness of the underlying wood. Hard maple bats don’t break all the way through, they break at weak-points along the grain; softer ash bats break all the way through at the weakest point on the bat (the handle).

SnakeDoc