The History Of Aluminum Bats

Aluminum bats began to gain acceptance in the 1970s and have grown in popularity since. They are lightweight, enabling a baseball player to swing more quickly, and they're more durable than traditional wooden bats. While they are common in Little League, college and schoolyard games, aluminum bats are banned in Major League Baseball. Traditionalists insist that the ping of an aluminum bat could never replace the crack of a wooden bat hitting a baseball.

Early Idea

The idea of replacing a wooden bat with metal dates to 1924, when William A. Shroyer Jr., of Dayton, Ohio, received patent No. 1,499,128 for an all-metal baseball bat. The object of the invention, Shroyer wrote in his patent application, was to provide a metal bat that had "the essential qualities of wood bats"--lightness, resiliency and balance. He also noted that wooden bats would split, splinter or ultimate succumb to repeated use in bad weather. Shroyer's idea called for a weight in the tube of the bat to reinforce the area coming into contact with a ball.

The Idea Grows

Worth Sports of St. Louis, Mo., became the first large sporting goods maker in the nation to start producing aluminum bats in 1970, according to the company's website. Meanwhile, inventors continued to refine construction. In 1972, George F. Swenck, of Richmond, Va., received a patent for a metal bat that had better weight distribution and was economical to produce. Swenck assigned the patent to the Reynolds Metal Co. Then in 1974, Swenck and Irvin C. Scott, also of Richmond, received a patent for a new tapering technique that the inventors claimed would improve performance, particularly for power hitters. They assigned that patent to Reynolds Metal Co., as well. Both patents refer to improving aluminum bats.

Increased Popularity

As manufacturers continued to improve aluminum bat construction, Worth Sports made more commercial inroads, introducing the first one-piece aluminum bat and the first official Little League aluminum bat in 1972. Two years later, the company marketed the first aluminum bat for the National Collegiate Athletic Association. It carried the name "Tennessee Thumper," according to the company website.

Competition Grows

The maker of the famous Louisville Slugger wooden bat didn't want to be left out of a growing and lucrative market. So Hillerich & Bradsby Co. bought Alcoa Sport Products in 1978 from the Aluminum Co. of America. Production of aluminum bats began the next year for softball and baseball use. The company's plant in California can produce 2 million aluminum bats a year, according to the Fabricators and Manufacturers Association International.

A Look into the Future

The aluminum bat industry continues to grow and evolve. Daniel A. Russell, associate professor of applied physics at Kettering University in Michigan, notes that "Every year new designs and models are introduced, each one claiming to be better than previous models. Each new bat is touted to have a wider sweet spot, more power, better feel and higher performance." Whether aluminum bats ever will make it to the Major Leagues is anyone's guess. For now, the rules state, 'The bat shall be one piece of solid wood.'"