The Axe Bat is more than a Frankenstein-style meshing of an axe handle and a baseball bat barrel. The key lies in the bat's final few inches near the handle. That's where the design gracefully curves from the standard round shape to a asymmetrical oval before tapering to an angled knob at the end.
The results, as reported in a recent study (PDF) by UCLA engineering professor Dr. Vijay Gupta, show that the Axe Bat is more comfortable, delivers more power and speed, and reduces injuries when compared with traditional bats. A hitter's bottom hand grips the Axe Bat away from the palm and more in the fingers, producing a more stable grip with less tension in the hands. Also, the back side of the handle is flat, so it won't poke a hitter in the palm the way a traditional bat handle does. That protrusion can injure the hamate bone on hard and checked swings. If you've ever gone to the batting cages and come away with a bruise between the middle of your palm and the bottom of your thumb, that's your hamate bone. Fractures there have sent dozens of major leaguers, including Ryan Zimmerman, Gordon Beckham, and Pablo Sandoval (twice - once on each hand), to the disabled list.
An asymmetrical handle also means that the bat doesn't rotate in the hitter's hands, so the same face of the bat hits the ball every time. The company calls that 'one-sided' hitting. Its latest composite bat, the Avenge L140B, has special construction that allows the hitting side to flex like a spring.
New York woodworker Bruce Leinert got the idea for the Axe Bat in 1990 while chopping wood. To help pass the time, the lifelong baseball fan pretended he was swinging a bat as he swung at trees. The natural fit in his hands and the resulting accurate swings had him convinced he had come upon baseball's next big innovation.
His idea had some support from one of the game's greatest hitters. In his 1971 book The Science of Hitting, Ted Williams said that a hitter's wrists, at the point of contact, should be 'square and unbroken ... just as when you hit a tree with an ax.'
Leinert build his first bat in two hours, but it took much longer for his idea to get widespread attention. He filed a patent application in 2007, and two years later, he signed a 20-year licensing deal with Baden Sports, a family-owned sporting goods company based in Washington.
The company's research and development team has spent the last few years refining the design, including a months-long ergonomic study. They were able to speed up the testing phase by 3D-printing prototype bats and then making changes based on feedback from hitters.
'I do believe there will be some point in the future when every bat looks like this,' said Hugh Tompkins, who heads R&D for Axe Bat. 'This is the first handle that really actually is designed for the way that a hand fits the bat and the mechanics that a hitter goes through when he swings.'
Sales have more than tripled since 2012 when the full lineup was first introduced. A majority of those sales have been to youth, high school, and college baseball teams and players, although a few major leaguers, most notably Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins, have experimented with a wood model.
Marietta College won the 2012 NCAA Division III national baseball championship in its first season swinging the Axe Bat. The team led the nation in hits (636) and batted .331 as a team. San Jose State, one of two Division I teams that use the Axe Bat exclusively, starting using it in 2013 and had more hits and fewer strikeouts than any team in the Western Athletic Conference that year. And this spring, Memphis Tigers outfielder Chris Carrier used an Axe Bat in winning the American Athletic Conference Home Run Derby.
'My hitting coach, Clay Greene, likes it because he thinks our bat stays in the zone a little bit longer,' said Memphis head coach Daron Schoenrock, whose team led the league in hitting in 2013. 'Our guys like it so much that they're swinging the wood Axe Bat in summer ball.'
While the Axe Bat isn't threatening the big players like Louisville Slugger and Easton for market dominance just yet, it's already secured a coveted spot in a baseball shrine. Inside a reproduction of a Seattle Mariners' locker in the 'Today's Game' exhibit at the Baseball Hall of Fame sits an Axe Bat. The company is hoping others will one day join it there in Cooperstown.
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