Why Maple

WHY MAPLE
Maple wood bats have traditionally been made from ash for many years. Ash was easy to mass produce and there was plenty of it to go around. If, like me, you grew up playing baseball with a wood bat, you had one choice and one choice only and that was ash. The performance of these bats was good, however the durability left something to be desired. The very nature of the wood itself was the problem.

Ash has a structure that is open and porous and there are tremendous variations in the quality of the wood. The professional players at the highest levels got the best grades, while the lesser grades filtered down to the amateur and recreational players. The rising cost of wood bats and the frequency with which they broke eventually led to the popularity of aluminum bats.

Aluminum drastically changed the nature of the game. Just as modern technology moved us away from tradition with the introduction of aluminum bats, it has now given us the opportunity to return to our roots. Computer lathing, vacuum kiln drying, and modern stains and finishes have allowed bat makers to use hard maple in their manufacturing process.

The result is a bat that has more pop and much greater durability than those made of ash. Made popular by Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa, maple wood bats are sweeping the country by storm. The grain of hard maple wood is much tighter and much denser than ash. It is more consistent in nature thus eliminating the multi grading system that was used with ash. You can now hit with the same bats used by the pros.

ASH	MAPLE
In this picture you can see that white ash is filled with small air pockets called vessels. This allows for the wood to be lighter, but more susceptible to breakage. Note that the air pockets are concentrated in the early portion of the growth ring.	More and more players today are using bats made from hard maple. The most common hard maple is sugar maple. Sugar maple is heavier and more dense due to an evenly spaced growth pattern. Note that the air pockets are uniformly distributed throughout the growth ring.