Letter

Baffling Bats

March 1, 2001 – Letters from readers

In your January edition, you once again published an item about bat bpf ratings and ball COR. In previous articles, you published comments from Prof. Brandt that of the two factors ˆ the bat and the ball ˆ the ball has a much greater influence on the speed at which it comes off the bat.

In my personal experience at Roseville (during the 2000 AA Senior Softball World Championships) last year, the .47 COR/ .525 Compression ball was used and it dramatically demonstrated the point. It was much different than the more restricted .47 COR / .375 Compression ball we use locally. So that was useful information.

The stuff about the bpf and BBS (bat ratings) was not. I have an inexpensive bat rated 1.20 and an expensive bat rated 1.20 bpf. So what is the difference? Please help me out with the following:

1. What actual speed is the bat going in order to meet the 1.20 bpf, or the BBS standard?

2. Does the standard mean that a bat hit by a ball traveling at 60 mph will never exceed 60 mph? Is this a minimum standard, meaning some of the bats marked 1.20 bpf or ASA 2000 actually produce less performance than the standard?

3. Is every bat actually tested?

4. Why don't bat manufacturers put the actual test results on the bat?

5. Finally, I already know that the combination of mass and speed at impact propels the ball off the bat, whatever its COR/Compression Rating. So, the heaviest bat swung at the greatest speed will produce the longest hit, all other things being equal. We also know that we are genetically limited to the amount of speed and strength we wield to generate bat speed. So, if the bats are all 1.20 and we can only swing so much bat so fast anyway, why buy expensive bats?

Please do not refer me to a bat manufacturer.

Lee Morris

Medford, Oregon

Editor's Note: Great questions. Here are some of the answers, but for better in-depth information and independent bat ratings, see the B&N Softball website by NASA scientist Mark McDowell at: www.bandnsoftball.com. Here are the answers:

1. The bat is traveling at the same speed in all tests: 60 miles per hour.

2. The standard deals with averages, which is why the ball travels at a standard average speed, as does the bat in the tests. If the bat or ball speed increases, the ball will come off the bat faster. In addition, if the ball is harder (has a higher compression rating), it will come off the bat faster than in the original tests, which used balls of .375 Compression. While bat standards are maximum (the bat does not exceed 1.20 or ASA 2000), most bats made in the past few years are very close to the maximum standard, according to manufacturers and independent tests. The exception may be inexpensive single wall bats.

3. Not all bats are tested. Bats are designed to meet the standards and the prototypes are tested. Independent testers, such as B&N Softball, will randomly select bats on the market to test.

4. There has been little demand to list detailed results of tests on the bat.

5. There are two major reasons for buying expensive multi-wall bats: First, the sweet spot is at least twice as large as a single wall bat. Meaning you will get more hits. Second, while the multi-wall bats do not propel the ball faster, they do create an upward spin on the ball ˆ meaning a ball hit with the same power will actually go farther off a multi-wall bat.