With tradition taking a back seat to performance in the design process, baseball bats have become more state of the art than ever. Despite the fact professional baseball only allows wooden bats, composite and metal bats are still popular in every other level of the game as of 2010. Composite bats are a relative newcomer, but they began making waves almost immediately after being introduced.
History
The first metal bat was patented in 1924 by Daniel Shroyer. It was nearly 50 years later that regular production began. Worth introduced metal bats on a competitive level in 1970, and since then, every other major bat manufacturer has made their own version. Composite bats burst onto the scene in the late 1990s when Miken introduced a bat it called "carbon fiber." Miken's version failed to make waves performance-wise and shortly afterward, Louisville Slugger released their version called the "Genesis" which would achieve the No. 1 bat ranking in 2001.
Types
Metal and composite bats are manufactured for baseball and softball, and come in a variety of lengths and weights. The most notable variant with metal bats are whether the bat is single-walled or double-walled. Single-walled bats result in the ball traveling faster after impact, but the "sweet spot" of a double-walled bat is larger allowing for a higher number of hard hit balls. Composite bats are sometimes made using "half and half" technology, which means the barrel might be composite, but the handle is metal.
Features
While metal bats range mostly through weight in ounces and number of walls, composite bats allow for a larger spectrum of features, including changing the location of the bats center of balance. According to a study done at Kettering University, a bat's swing speed can be greatly increased if the center of balance is moved close to the handle. A high-end composite bat that measures and weighs the exact same as a metal bat can feel completely different with just a slight alteration in center of balance. The faster a bat is traveling when it makes contact with the ball, the faster and farther the ball is going to travel.
Warning
Many leagues have banned the use of composite bats. At first it may seem strange to ban a bat that scientific evidence shows performs better than any other, but the reasoning behind the bans are safety-driven. After a ball is hit off of a composite bat, the ball travels faster than that of a ball hit off of a wooden or metal bat. If you are playing third base and the ball is a line drive hit directly at your head, those extra few miles per hour may be the difference in a close call and a fatal injury.
Considerations
You may be tempted to purchase a composite bat for the sole reason of increased performance. Keep in mind this performance boost doesn't actually begin on the first ball hit. Composite bats have a break-in period that may require as many as 200 hit balls before you start seeing the benefits. During this break-in period you must rotate the bat slightly after every hit ball to ensure that every inch of the bat is properly broken in at the same time.
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