The talk of Major League Baseball’s opening weekend was the New York Yankees’ bats, and “bats” here isn’t a figurative way to talk about the insane 36 runs off 34 hits, including 15 homers, the team notched in their first three games. Instead, the conversation is focused on the literal shape of the bats some on the Yankees used to produce those eye-popping numbers.
The conversation is focused on the shape of the bats some on the Yankees used to produce those eye-popping numbers.
The Yanks seem to have created an edge by — gasp — innovating. Several of their stars (notably excluding Aaron Judge, who leads the team in hits, home runs, on-base percentage, RBIs and batting average) are swinging a so-called torpedo bat, which uses a manufacturing tweak to shift some of a traditional bat’s mass a few inches in toward the batter. Instead of the bats we’re used to seeing that are skinny on one end and heavy on the other, these bats look flatter because more of their mass is concentrated in the zone most likely to make contact with a pitch, theoretically giving hitters more power without changing anything else.
Early results say the Yankees’ scheme is working: They’re undefeated through three games, having outscored the Milwaukee Brewers 36-14 in their opening series.
And now, the question being asked in the sports-talkosphere is “Are the Yankees cheating?” Is changing the shape of a baseball bat the same as corking one, which once earned Sammy Sosa a suspension? Does it line up with players’ using performance enhancing drugs, signal stealing or pitchers’ tampering with a ball?
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