Posted by: RH (stroberjunk@cs.com) on Thu Aug 23 10:14:29 2001

I found myself over at the local Sports Authority during my lunch hour, checking out bats. After handling a few different bats, I accidentally picked up an aluminum BASEball bat, and it felt magical in my hands! I noticed it had a cone-type tapered handle (as opposed to straight). I then picked up and lightly swung (the aisle was empty) several softball bats, and alternated with other hardball bats. I couldn't believe how much better in my hand the baseball bats felt! They seemed to fill the bottom of my grip so much better (I do have large hands).

My question is - why are softball bats made with straight handles while hardball bats have cone tapers, and does anyone have anything good or bad to say about installing a cone taper on a straight handle?