moving on to the next topic of conversation... Bat Compression testing.
I am a HUGE fan of the idea of compression test, and a tangible standard for everyone to adhere to. However I don't think the current compression testing procedure is giving a true understanding of the bats compression. Pretty much everyone who knows me knows that for the last year I have been gaming a green Easton LV1, and it is awesome. When I got the bat used the previous owner told me that it had been a bp bat and that it was almost exclusively hit on one side only. Meaning that one side of the bat was broken in and game ready and one side was not. I had never had a bat as good as the LV1 and was a little worried about its legitimacy. So I had the bat compression tested by Jeff (NSA) just to see if it would pass. It passed easily but I wasn't sure about what the numbers meant because his tester used a different number system. Over the next year the bat was tested at various events with what i thought was a consistent drop in the compression numbers starting around 260 and ending with 221 at the Freedom World. I walked away from the check in table thinking the bat would never be legal again, that it was the last tournament for the bat. So I hit it in bp and in a few back yard tournaments during the winter not thinking about preserving it as a gamer. When Winter World came I was worried that I wouldn't have a bat or if I swung my LV1 that if I hit a pitcher that it would fail and I would be in trouble. So when I found out they weren't testing I couldn't resist and swung it anyways.... in hind sight I'm ashamed of that. Moving on to the Final 4 at Peters Creek I had the bat tested again (I wasn't playing) just to see what the numbers would be and it passed with a 250 compression. I couldn't believe it, I thought the tester must have been mis-calibrated... but it eased my mind about swinging it from then on.
So all of that to get to this past weekend at the Conference tournament in Chattanooga. I was again scared to have the LV1 tested for fear that it would fail and be cut in half. So I got in touch with a friend on the TM Sports coaching staff and asked if they would test my bats before I went to check in (they have a tester). They tested the bat on 4 sides it tested 230 on 3 of the sides and 250 on 1. Which calmed my fears about checking it in for the tournament. When I got to check in they tested the LV1 at 275. So how can a bat that tested 221 last fall test 275 now??? after countless more swings, on hard balls in the cold winter.
I have a theory. It is just a theory, but I think it is worth discussing. Going back to the beginning of the story the bat was broken in on one side only on purpose. If the bat has a range of 230-250 depending on the side. Is it outside of the realm of possibility that temperature, different testing machines, and different testing operators could account for 10-15 difference compression? So the bat has a range of 20 pounds and the other variables have a range of 15 pounds ether way equaling a possible 30. Thats 50 pounds difference on one bat if all of the "ifs" happen.
So with that much variation from test to test... how is this a viable system for determining if a bat is legal for play or not? Is there anything that can be done to remove or limit the variables? My first thought is to have testers check all 4 sides every time.
I will have the bat tested again this weekend at the Peach State in Atlanta. So I will report back with what it test there.
