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Discussion: curious umpire

Posted	Discussion
May 16, 2011 J R 140 posts	curious umpire Recently we we instructed by UIC to check bats, and make sure the end was not taped over.So we could see the rod was still in the bat.What is the advantage to removing the rod. Seems to me the bat would be hollow. Someone please help me
May 16, 2011 stick8 1117 posts	Taking the rod out of the end of the bat handle makes the bat more end loaded.
May 16, 2011 J R 140 posts	why not just buy an endloaded bat
May 17, 2011 mad dog Men's 60 3803 posts	JR,yes you can buy an end loaded bat,but taking the rod out can make it even more end loaded.some guys like to swing hammers.
May 17, 2011 salio2k Men's 60 548 posts	JR.....What do you do when you find a bat without the rod? I've got bats with rubber plugs.
May 17, 2011 BruceinGa Men's 60 2438 posts	Some 26oz bats had rubber plugs, no rods.
May 17, 2011 tinman Men's 50 76 posts	I have an original Freak that had a short rubber plug force its way out of the handle breaking through the original label.Can anyone explain.
May 18, 2011 salio2k Men's 60 548 posts	tinman.......26 oz freaks had rubber plugs in them.
May 18, 2011 stick8 1117 posts	JR you can buy an end loaded bat but they tend to swing heavier then the listed weight. If you took the end cap out of a 26 oz balanced bat it'll swing lighter with an end load feel--as low as 24 oz. Many players today prefer lighter bats.
May 18, 2011 mad dog Men's 60 3803 posts	tinman i had the same prol,i just put some gorilla glue on it and pushed it back in,mine was a 26 oz freak,from what i heard that was a big prol with the 26 oz freaks.
May 18, 2011 J R 140 posts	they were mainly speaking of ultra's. I always thought 26 oz ultra had no rod an so many ounces of rod added to it to make the stamped weight. The uic said it would increase the flex of an ultra if you removed the rod ?Some how i do not see how that could happen.We were told to toss the bat from the game if no rod. I knew about the rubber plugs. I still have my original freak
May 18, 2011 stick8 1117 posts	JR whoever told you to toss out bats with rods removed was EXACTLY correct. It's altering a bat.
May 19, 2011 obagain Men's 50 48 posts	JR, it is altering the bat so it should be tossed but it will not add flex, at least not much if at all. It will change the swing weight so the bat in theory could swing faster and have more force thru the ball but if you dont have good bat speed it could actually work against you.
May 19, 2011 Joncon 285 posts	Composite bat manufacturing is not an exact science. There is a lot of hand work involved, applying the different layers. Generally, the bats all come out weighing appx 26 oz and the extra weight to bring it to 27, 28, 30 (if needed) is simply added to the handle via a small metal rod. Anyone suggesting that the rod would in anyway affect performance is mistaken. It's there simply to get the weights close to correct. Keep in mind that one ounce is about the weight of 5 quarters. Not much, especially in the handle. If you are going to check bats, check something that matters......which you can't realy do without a sawzall:)
May 20, 2011 Clean Up 25 posts	Joncon Thanks for the info. If the weight is the rod put in the handle, how do the make the bats balanced or end loaded?
May 22, 2011 Joncon 285 posts	Good question. I will have to surmise that they put an ounce or so of some kind of epoxy in the cap. Either that or they simply print "Balanced" or "Endloaded" on the bat :) I saw an Combat endcap of a supposedly stock bat that had a few 1/4" nuts epoxied in.
May 23, 2011 The Kid 3 posts	The endcap you mentioned on the Combat is stock. The nuts they use have a relatively consistant weight. This makes it simple. X number of nuts go into X weight bats. It works well.
May 23, 2011 J R 140 posts	I spoke with Corky the Miken rep. this weekend in Georgetown. He said removing the rod fom an ultra is in no way an advantage. You just have a bat that sounds funny when you hit the ball.
May 23, 2011 SSUSA Staff 787 posts	And an "altered bat" - See SSUSA Rulebook Section 3.4(7)for the penalties for using same.
May 29, 2011 Ernies 53 Men's 50 23 posts	Is that why they sound like a rock in a soda can when the epoxy fails? And why would anyone want to dr. a senior bat? Most of them I have swung are wicked enough!!!
May 29, 2011 mad dog Men's 60 3803 posts	ernie you would surprised at what some fools will do,ask a reebok rep.the mikens are/were notorious for the rattling sound when they got older.i had one that was that way for 2 years before finally breaking.we called it the death rattle,as most of the time it wasn't to far from breaking when you heard the rattle. yeah JR they do sound funny,had a 26 oz freak that had the rubber rod in the handle and it came out and i didn't realize it,and thought i had broke my bat b/c of that sound(was bping).i got lucky and found it on the ground and gorilla glued it back in.bat lasted about 2 years before breaking,those last 100 hits well lets say the ball was taking off,miss that bat.

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