Many insiders are wondering what “secret” lies behind the New York Yankees’ recent successes. According to some specialists, one possible answer to that question may involve their new baseball bats.
In the U.S. they call them Torpedo Bats, because of their unusual shape, and they “threaten” to completely revolutionize the sport, at least as we have known it to date.
Unlike the traditional bats, the Torpedo bats, made with the help of a physicist working for the Yankees, are more domed near the handle and at the top. Franchise analysts examined each player’s batting data so that the widest part of the barrel could be placed where they hit the ball most often. This way, hitters could rely on a wider surface in response to the pitches.
The MLB has stated that Torpedoes do not violate the rules which stipulate that each bat must be composed of a single piece of wood, having a diameter of no more than 2.61 inches, and a length of no more than 42 inches.
The “torpedo bat” was the brainchild of MIT physicist Aaron “Lenny” Leanhardt, a member of the game analysis team of the Yankees, arguably the best-known baseball franchise in the world.
Leanhardt said the idea was in a way suggested to him by the players themselves, who were looking for a bat with more hitting power.
“It’s just about making the bat as heavy and as fat as possible in the area where you’re trying to do damage on the baseball,” Leanhardt told the Athletic, “It’s just through those conversations where you think to yourself, ‘Why don’t we exchange how much wood we’re putting on the tip versus how much we’re putting in the sweet spot?’”.
“That’s the original concept right there”, he added, “Just try to take all that excess weight and try to put it where you’re trying to hit the ball and then, in exchange, try to take the thinner diameter that used to be at the sweet spot and put that on the tip.”
In the first three games of the season using Torpedo Bats, the Yankees, who were stopped only by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series last year, have totaled 15 home runs, nine of them in the game against the Milwaukee Brewers, which they won 20-9.
Innovation and success notwithstanding, some of the team’s hitters are continuing to use the traditional baseball bat, as they just feel more comfortable with it.
