Types of Baseball Bats

Video Transcript

"BEN GRAHAM: Playing offense, you need a bat. You gotta have something to hit the ball. This is how the game gets going. This is a standard aluminum bat. There are various alloys that go into making bats, but that's a little bit more in-depth than we really need to get today. What you need to know is the bat is a long, cylinder. It gets fatter towards the barrel. This is ideally where you want to hit the ball. This is the handle of the bat and you'll notice that it's wrapped. This is wrapped in rubber. Sometimes, you'll find them wrapped in leather. This type of bat--most of you, if you've played baseball at all, this is what you're most familiar with. This is what is used in 90 percent of the games of baseball in the United States. In the Major League level and in the Minor League level, when you get into the professional baseball, they do use wooden bats. I like to swing--this one's actually a little small, but normally I swing a 32-inch, 28-ounce bat. This is one is a 32-inch, 25-ounce bat. This is well suited for a smaller player. If there are ladies watching, this is probably the size of bat that you would use. If you're about between 5-foot-2 and 5-foot-5, this might be the type of bat that you would want to use. And when you hold the bat, what you're going to want to do, as a right-handed batter, you'll put your left hand on the bottom, you're going to put your finger here, right on this little knob, fold it. Right around, you're going to hold it very loosely in your fingers. Your right hand goes on top. Again, you hold it in your fingers. Hold it lightly like an egg, take your stance, and you swing the bat. And that's basically how you create offense in the game of baseball with a simple, little cylinder called a baseball bat."