Posted by: The Hitting Guru () on Sat Jan 13 12:08:24 2007

Bob L. The primary reason a hitter uses a corked bat is for timing related to the ideal bat length and weight. As such, at the time lighter wood bats became popular it was still hard to find quality wood that a player could swing to his liking. This meant that in many cases a player had to swing a shorter (less quality) wood bat in order to get one light enough that he could swing. And a lot of players sacrifice plate coverage by going to shorter bats. Today more innovations are possible through more dense (select) wood, bat shaping through the help of machines, and bats made of sugar maple.

The big part of timing and getting the best hit is the ability to hit the ball on the sweet spot. Thus any way to construct (alter) a bat to aid in hitting of the sweet spot is preferred (by many) as the ball will travel significantly further when struck on the sweet spot of the bat.

Most of the actual advantage in using a corked bat is psycological. But if batspeed is more significant than the weight or hardness of the bat, it may actually help a hitter gain distance.

I once had a wood craftsman/carpenter drill a hole in a bat that was to heavy for me to swing efficiently. I filled it with superballs and wood putty and repainted it for a softball league. I did not see any added distance, but I was hitting the ball solid more often and hitting sharp line drives all over the field. After while I felt guilty and went back to my regular bats. My hitting suffered but my conscience was eased. I now order bats from old hickory, maxbats, or bats by Buck.