i ordered 33-inch one from steve about three weeks ago and picked it up today. i like it.
steve makes maple bats in various colors at $38 a stick. mine's red. its' a rich tomato red, which is fine for a guy who loves his vegetables and used to run a club called the red hot chili peppers (which, by the way, is still quite alive as a traveling squad.) steve will tape the bats (mine isn't), but he doesn't engrave them. my color is light enough that when i do have it engraved, the black lettering should stand out nicely.
now i don't think anyone knows a bat until it's used in practice or a game, so i can't really write a full review. but so far, swinging it two hours ago in my 37-degree garage, i'd give this one four stars. in my first swing, i hit the ball with the fat part of the bat off my tee which stands about six fee from my hanging cloth painter's tarp into what i'd call the deep left field section of the tarp. the tarp ain't the field, of course, and the tee ain't a gerry solomon hummer, but, with the season 99 days away, it's a good omen nonetheless.
at 32 ounces, the bat is a bit heavier than the 30, 31 ouncers i'd used in the past but last season, after struggling early, i switched from a light, thin-handled bat to an easton 110 maple model. that was about 32 ounces and had a fairly thick handle. i found that the heavier bat was actually good for me: it helped me keep my hands back and my shoulder in longer. but i broke the bat in the playoffs.
so this is a nice replacement and it resembles the 110. it actually has a nicer taper than that bat had. the red bat's weight opens evenly and smoothly to the end. and it has, above all, a nice heft to it, a very solid feel. in fact, when i swung it, it reminded me, in a good way, of the "war clubs" i sometimes used when i was a kid. those bats were different, they were thin-handled things with a sudden, heavy barrel. swinging them could be a chore and if you missed, it could lift you right out of your keds' sneakers. but if you connected, bam! adios, baby! the ball became a disappearing dot.
or so my memory tells me.
i don't know if all of steve's bats will be cut like this; he may make variations for each order. but it's not a bad thing, i think, to support our own, and at $38 for a solid maple bat it's hard to go wrong. most maples i've seen start about $60. steve can be reached at slounello@yahoo.com.
-mike
-- Edited by mhart on Friday 22nd of January 2010 05:29:01 PM
-- Edited by mhart on Friday 22nd of January 2010 05:29:52 PM
-- Edited by mhart on Friday 22nd of January 2010 05:31:38 PM
