Wooden bat distance and durability?

[helmerfan]

So a church league I play in is a single-wall aluminum bat league, but for the past couple of years there has been a growing interest in going to wooden bats. They are considering doing a trial fall ball season with them this fall. Our fence is 240 down the lines and 280 in center. Most teams use the white steel now and typically there are about 3 home runs per team each game, or 6 in a doubleheader. My question is how rare will home runs become on a field this size? Will it just be big guys hitting them out? I've never used a wooden bat before so I'm very curious, also how many hits do you typically get out of a wooden bat before it breaks? Thanks guys

 

[LeftBench]

you will have a lot of fun......dont know how many swings it will be till one breaks.....me never...im a lil guy with no pop

 

[medoggy360]

I been looking 2try one just for bp

 

[mijowe]

I just got some blems from viper bats recently to try them out, probably as cheap as you can get them. If you are only hitting 3 out per game now, i would say hrs are going to become scarce.

 

[PROSHOP]

we have a guy up here we call JUICE....he's been hitting a bamboo worth?? he puts them out of 300ft parks..this kid could use a broom stick and he'd hit it out..

 

[redwards92]

wtf you using mush balls or something?

or is the HR limit 3 per game per team ?

 

[Chrisklol]

I hit em off the fence on my 300' park. Never got one over

 

[Tripps]

They seem to hold up pretty decent. I've only seen a few broken and most of them were by jackasses slamming them on the ground. Your fields sound perfect, good hitters will still hit them out. 300' is a little far, I've only seen 1 hit out in 2 years, and that was with high winds and low temps.

 

[collegemade]

Woods bats are a humbling experience. Alot of fun!

 

[Bobby Buggs]

Hit um on the barrel and not off the end and they will last a while. I recommend 52-300 balls for wood bats.

 

[SacBunt]

A local league here just started a wooden bat league. Season starts in about month!

 

[dford42]

its a fun time. Just dont hit with the trademark and you should be good to go. We only had one season of it here since everyone is a homerun hero around here. Saw a few one or two hop the fence but none went over. Definitely humbling and brings you back to basics.

 

[Boomer95]

I would love to play in a wooden bat league or an aluminum bat league but not much call for it here in OKC. So many guys use shaved bats and nobody seems to care. It would be nice to level the playing field and see who can hit and who can't.

 

[Gamble]

Hit um on the barrel and not off the end and they will last a while. I recommend 52-300 balls for wood bats.

This is solid advice, on both counts.

Seriously, use the .52/300 if you can...the lower compression and higher CoR are actually both beneficial to you if you're swinging wood.

 

[D_Wreck55]

We have a wood bat league here, it kinda fizzled out after a couple seasons. We have a bunch of big hitters here in redding and play at the big league dreams. In 5 seasons with 300 ft fences I only saw 1 home run. So at 240 def a possibility. Ball comes off good off the wood bat, just loses it's distance very quickly and doesn't travel very far. Definatley makes it a placement game. Everyone very quickly went to a 5 man. If you need a hook up for wood bat contact me there is a local shop here that custom makes em with what ever colors and paint schemes you want. Pictures graphics anything.

 

[RandomAverage]

the fall city league here is going to wood bats this year also. you can still hit balls pretty hard with a wood bat. a 240 fence is definitely possible with a decent ball; if it's a top of the line .44 375 or better, it's not necessarily even a stretch. a poor quality ball and a wood bat though and you won't get much distance at all. we'll be using dudley sb12 cork center balls... i am not expecting much out of this combination.

regarding durability, i had a maple bat from tomcat bats (they are now defunct), and i actually really liked the bat. durability was decent, it lasted me probably four or five years, but i only used it sporadically.

you'll also notice a difference between a good maple softball bat and a cheap wood softball bat. there are a surprising number of companies that make wood bats - phoenix bats, viper, xbat, etc.

 

[DSNuts48]

Woods bats are very fun to play with and prove who can hit and who can't. Maximizing your sweetspot is key. I have more fun in wood bat than I do playing in NSA. I'd suggest the Bamboom because it's a maple barrel with a bamboo shaft. It's very forgiving.