The bats are legal and within the same rules that have applied for more than a century. The Yankees just were willing to experiment first, and given how conservative players are about their equipment, especially bats, if you can get a hitter to try a new bat design at the major league level, you deserve huge credit.
Bats have varied a fair amount over the decades, all within the same set of rules. In the Deadball Era, Giants and Reds star third baseman Heinie Groh was famous for his "bottle bat." Groh was a little guy, so he had a bat made for him with a thin handle for his small hands a big barrel to get more wood on the ball. https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/heinie-groh/ That bat was legal then; I am not sure of the dimensions so it might or might not be legal now.
All that MLB Rule 3.02 states about bats is: тАЬThe bat shall be a smooth, round stick not more than 2.61 inches in diameter at the thickest part and not more than 42 inches in length. The bat shall be one piece of solid wood.тАЭ That's it.
Sounds like something that could have been discussed by mlb & team owners in the off season though.
Yeah that's trash that the Yankees got a headstart.
The bats are legal and within the same rules that have applied for more than a century. The Yankees just were willing to experiment first, and given how conservative players are about their equipment, especially bats, if you can get a hitter to try a new bat design at the major league level, you deserve huge credit.
Bats have varied a fair amount over the decades, all within the same set of rules. In the Deadball Era, Giants and Reds star third baseman Heinie Groh was famous for his "bottle bat." Groh was a little guy, so he had a bat made for him with a thin handle for his small hands a big barrel to get more wood on the ball. https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/heinie-groh/ That bat was legal then; I am not sure of the dimensions so it might or might not be legal now.
All that MLB Rule 3.02 states about bats is: тАЬThe bat shall be a smooth, round stick not more than 2.61 inches in diameter at the thickest part and not more than 42 inches in length. The bat shall be one piece of solid wood.тАЭ That's it.