Hmmmmm, you would think there to be a particular standard!!
Nope! Superstar slugger Dave Winfield (my fave as a little kid) used to swing these ridiculously small bats (As a scrawny 13-yr-old, I used his model bat). 32 ounces. Rod Carew and Ozzie Smith swung even lighter bats, 29 ounces.
Babe Ruth used a 54-ounce bat.
“Hmmmmm, you would think there to be a particular standard!!”
There is. It’s in rule 3.02:
3.02 The Bat
(a) The bat shall be a smooth, round stick not more than 2.61 inches
in diameter at the thickest part and not more than 42 inches in
length. The bat shall be one piece of solid wood.
NOTE: No laminated or experimental bats shall be used in a
professional game (either championship season or exhibition
games) until the manufacturer has secured approval from Major
League Baseball of his design and methods of manufacture.
(b) Cupped Bats. An indentation in the end of the bat up to 1ΒΌ
inches in depth is permitted and may be no wider than two
inches and no less than one inch in diameter. The indentation
must be curved with no foreign substance added.
(c) The bat handle, for not more than 18 inches from its end, may
be covered or treated with any material or substance to improve
the grip. Any such material or substance that extends past the
18-inch limitation shall cause the bat to be removed from the
game.
The rule states that no experimental bats made be used in a game so MLB had to have approved it prior to it’s use. So as long as the width of the bat doesn’t exceed the diameter rule at this new width location, it’s legal. But what it is going to cause is more pitching off the plate inside and outside to get away from the strike zone. And if the bat goes into mass use they are going to have to raise the mound, change the ball, make the strike zone bigger, and allow some illegal pitches to be used to control the batting influx. Even home run derby gets boring.
wy69
“Hmmmmm, you would think there to be a particular standard!!”
There is. I would expect the equipment manager for a major league baseball team would know the rules regarding legal vs illegal bats. If he didn’t and allowed his team to use illegal equipment, he should lose his job.