- May 11, 2014
- 275
- 43
Saw somewhere that at one time Candrea only had 33in bats on his team. Didn't some guy named Rose choke up on the bat and a wanna be named Bonds also.
Good advice open minded approach!Thanks for all the replies. Certainly some interesting thoughts on this subject. Like I told her, "Go into it with an open mind, and just maybe this will be that one last little piece that takes you to the next level at the plate." I sure hope so.
Eldest dd started swinging a 34 jr. year summer.I've said it here previously, the single best thing for DD was moving up from 33-10 to 34-10. I also experimented with 33-9. DD changed in Dec of her freshman HS year. Something just clicked for her. Liked the 34 way better than the 1oz heavier 33. YMMV
The lesson here is they were using an illegal hot slo pitch bat... there's a reason it was banned the following year. Wonder what the result would be if that illegal hot bat was the appropriate size for the girls?Back around 2004 or 2005 I watched a JV team from a perennial powerhouse HS compete in a varsity tournament. The varsity team was too good for this tournament but it was about right for the JV team.
Every JV batter walked up to the plate with a black 34 inch bat. Even the tiny slappers. Everyone in the stands, including me, was asking "what's the deal with this?" After some asking around we all learned the big bat they were using was a Miken slow pitch model (it was banned the following year).
About half the team choked up 2-3 inches and the slappers were choked up almost to the taper where the grip ended. It was one of the strangest things I've seen on a diamond.
Several of us in the stands assumed the JV batters would be handicapped by having to swing a stick that was obviously oversize for most of them but they were talented enough to use it to their advantage. Almost all hit balls ended up in the outfield, even the ones put into play with weaker swings.
At first we spectators had plenty of criticism for the coach who was handicapping the players. But, by the end of the tournament when the results became undeniable, some of the spectators (not me!) were criticizing the coach for cheating. I think there's a lesson or two in here somewhere.