You just purchased a great piece of craftsmanship and you are ready to take her to the park for some serious hacks. Before you do that, you must realise that you are going to work with a bat made by nature. A fine piece of wood, coming from the hills of Northern Pennsylvania and southern New York State. There where the combination of density, hardness and weigth of the wood is optimal. And if you want to keep utilising those great features of your top quality bat, you have to be nice and take care of your bat. So try to keep these rules in mind:
All bats will break if not taken good care of!
- Use your game bat only in games. Have a similar bat that you use for batting practice. If you don't have a BP bat, stay away from hitting water logged or rubber balls.
- Be an expert in hitting the barrel. If you miss the barrel, getting jammed inside with 90+ mph or extending and hit one on the end of the barrel, the risk of breaking your bat is very high. So compose yourself and find a pitch in your zone that you can drive. If you are a notorious bat-breaker, 9 out of 10 times it is because of you chasing bad pitches.
- Hit with the brand label up, or down. The grains of the bat are the strongest in that direction. Take time to figure out on which side of the bat you are hitting the balls and adjust if neccessary!
- Talk to your bat, build that relationship. You really are stronger when there is two of you in that batters box.
- Avoid hitting in the rain, try to keep your bat dry.
- Do not leave your bat in extreme cold or hot conditions. And keep it out of the sun as much as possible. It will degrade much faster.
- Your bat is yours. Don't share it.
- Do not throw your bat around. Be nice.
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