Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Who Invented the Modern Baseball Bat?
David Pinto over at Baseball Musings gave me a pointer to this Jim Caple article about baseball bats.
Caple ordered replicas of bats originally made for Honus Wagner, “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth.
This part caught my eye:
There are two main things you notice when you pick up these bats. One, they’re big. The Ruth and Shoeless Joe bats are 36 inches long and weigh 38-40 ounces, depending on whose scale you trust. Next, with the exception of the Ruth bat, the handles are much thicker than modern bats. Scott Spiezio measured the Shoeless Joe bat against his own and found that Jackson’s handle was almost as thick as his is at the trademark. There are Hickory Farms beef sticks that are thinner. The Cobb and Wagner bats also have almost no knobs.
I was thinking none of the bats other than Ruth’s would have a knob. Multiple times I’ve heard Ruth is credited for inventing the modern bat - with a knob on the end.
Ruth played from 1914-1935. Shoeless Joe played from 1908-1920.
That’s a decent overlap for Jackson using a bat that Ruth supposedly brought to the scene, but some Google image seaching let me find this picture:
”Joe Showing Us How To Lay One Down”, dated 1912, from this page: Pictures of Shoeless Joe Jackson
That website even sells a replica of “Black Betsy”, Shoeless Joe’s bat. Louisville Slugger made three of them for Jackson back in 1915 according to the site, although Ruth’s career had started by then.
However - if there are early picture of Jackson with all his bats having knobs on them - why is Ruth given credit for making the modern bat? Was it also a skinnier handle?
I love reading about Ruth, I’m a fan like many others, just looking for some clarification here.
Continue reading "Who Invented the Modern Baseball Bat?"
Friday, July 22, 2005
AIM Fight
If you want to know who’s more popular at this very instant - you or the buddy you’re talking to on AIM, check out AIM Fight.
From the What is AIM Fight? page:
Why Fight?
What can fighting really prove? Using a complicated algorithm, AIM® Fight crawls through the depths of the Internet to answer the all-important question that plagues us all: How popular am I right this second?
How do I win?
Your score is the sum of the current number of people online who have you listed as a buddy, out to three degrees. This means the score is constantly changing, and the winner of the battle will constantly change with it.
“Out to three degrees?” Does this have anything to do with Kevin Bacon?
OK. It sounds a little complicated. But it’s not that bad. Here’s a diagram that makes it much clearer.
Thursday, July 21, 2005
Tommy Hates the Phillie Phanatic
Seriously, he really does. Too bad his players didn’t.