The average boy should use a bat thirty ‘inches long, weighing not more than two pounds. Top hitters such as Ted Williams, Arky Vaughn, Dixie Walker, and Tommy Holmes use bats thirty-five inches in length or shorter. Mickey Cochrane, former hitting star and manager of the Detroit Tigers, used a thirty-four-and-a half-inch bat. Mel Ott, who at the age of eighteen hit .374 for the Giants, used a thirty-four-inch bat.
The big leaguers use bats of varying weight. Some, such as DiMaggio, start the season with a heavy bat and end up with a light one. Babe Ruth during his peak years used a bat weighing fifty-four ounces, a fact that will attest to his tremendous wrist and hand power.
Choose a bat that feels tight in your hands. It should be well balanced, the handle easy to grip. Short, heavy bats can be swung faster and with more wrist snap than the long, light ones. It is the speed of the end of the bat that gives distance, and this speed depends upon the sharpness of the wrist snap. You will need strong, healthy, and flexible wrists to handle a bat well, so exercise your wrists as much as possible. Ted Williams, Ralph Kiner, and Joe DiMaggio do one hundred pushups daily to strengthen their wrists.
A few other facts to guide you: The bat should be made of close-grain wood with a thin handle and a fat hitting barrel, Very often the bat may fool just right, but the handle may be too thick. ii that is the caso, scropo the handle with a knife to fit your grip. Always keep the bat in a cool place and don’t let anyone else use it.
The Grip. After you have selected a bat you like, experiment until you discover a grip that enables you to hold the bat in perfect balance and comfort. You will find that the most reliable grip is the one in which the bat is hold with the hands close together about three or four inches from the handle. You may not continue with this grip but it is the best one to use until you find your range. Place or choke hitters use this grip. They swing at the boll with a short punch stroke
(Figures. 1) Their drives seldom go for extra bases but they are the most dependable hitters.
Sluggers such as Joe DiMaggio, Ralph Kiner, and Enos Slaughter grip the bat with their hands at the extreme end of the handle as shown in Figures 2 and 3. Batters of this type, always swinging from the heels, are very dangerous, since they can break up a ball game at any time.
