A New Bat
In 1906, The Chicago Daily News said:
“The inventive genius of Americans finds its opportunities here and pitching machines and other contrivances are from time to time being brought forth and seeking to enlist the interest and endorsement of the professional and amateur players of the game.”
To that end, a Chicago man had made his contribution:
“The latest invention is that of a bat, the striking part of which has a covering composed of an inner layer of cloth cemented to the bat and an otter layer of rubber corrugated length wise.”
The Bat
The bat appears to have never been written about again.
Crawford’s Bat Sense
Tigers infielder turned umpire and writer George Moriarty said in 1926, that his former teammate Sam Crawford “was known among ballplayers as the best judge of a piece of wood,” in baseball.
George Moriarty
Moriarty said players always asked Crawford’s opinion because “on site,” or sound, he could pick out a good bat:
“Claude Rossman (in 1908) then playing first base for Detroit, had just smashed a vicious drive to the outfield, and through his bat to the ground, saying ‘Boys, that’s some stick.’ Crawford, standing close by, heard the bat strike the ground, and remarked that it was cracked under the tape. To the other players the bat gave no evidence of having a defect when it hit the earth and, consequently, they thought that for once Sam was wrong.
“Rossman had used that bat for years, and the black tape around the handle appeared cemented to the bat from the constant use and the exposure to the sun.”
Sam Crawford
Rossman, said Moriarty, cut the tape off the bat to verify whether Crawford or his teammates were correct
“The result showed that Wahoo Sam was still supreme in his judgment of bats, as the club was cracked in four separate places under the tape.”
Reach Bats 1884
Al Reach, the National Association ballplayer turned sporting goods magnate told The Philadelphia Record in 1884 that it was already difficult for manufacturers to get enough material:
Al Reach
“We can’t get enough of the wood we want for making baseball bats. The second growth of ash is the best, and that is hard to get. It comes from Wisconsin and Michigan and should lay a year to season after being out before it is used. To kiln-dry it makes the bats brittle. Our Red Band bats are made of the second growth of ash, and they have become very popular, although we turned out the first lot only last summer. There are two other styles of bats—the professional ash which was popular with professional players before the Red Band came out and the American Willow (really basswood) which sells best in country towns and goes in company with the cheaper class of bats.”
Reach Red Band
Reach said, overall, the company turned out “between 600 and 900 gross” the previous year, or between 86,400 and 129,600 bats.
Baseball History Daily 
Leave a Reply