Ball bats, such as baseball and softball bats, are well known. In recent years, metallic bats including a tubular handle portion and a tubular barrel portion have emerged providing improved performance and improved durability over crack-prone wooden bats. The most common tubular bat is the aluminum single-wall tubular bat. Such bats have the advantage of a generally good impact response, meaning that the bat effectively transfers power to a batted ball.
Generally speaking, bat performance is a function of the weight of the bat, the size, and the impact response of the bat. The durability of a bat relates, at least in part, to its ability to resist denting and depends on the strength and stiffness of the tubular bat frame. While recent innovations in bat technology have increased performance and durability, most new bat designs typically improve performance or durability at the expense of the other because of competing design factors. For example, an attempt to increase the durability of the bat often produces an adverse effect on the bat's performance.
The incorporation of these advances and the use of additional materials, such as, other aluminum alloys, titanium alloys and composite materials have resulted in a large variety of well-performing ball bats. A typical metal bat, such as an aluminum bat, is formed with a one piece integral frame. Recently, high performance bats, such as bats incorporating the DeMarini® Half and Half™ bat technology, have been formed with separate handle and barrel portions, wherein the handle portion can be formed of a first material, such a composite material, and the barrel portion can be formed of a second material, such as a metal or a different composite material.
One drawback of recent ball bats formed of aluminum, titanium or composite materials is their cost. Aluminum, titanium and composite materials generally have a high material cost. For example, aluminum can cost up to ten times the price of conventional steel, and titanium is significantly more expensive than aluminum.
Despite such advances in ball bat design and materials, a continuing need exists to further improve and optimize the performance, durability, feel and appearance of existing bats. It would be advantageous to optimize the weight distribution of a ball bat by removing or transferring material from one or more locations on the bat and redistributing, some or all of the weight of the removed material, to other more desirable locations. A need exists for design features that reduce the cost of a high performance ball bat without negatively affecting performance or durability of the ball bat. It would also be advantageous to produce a high performance ball bat with innovative design features that significantly improve the appearance of the ball bat without negatively affecting the performance of the ball bat. A need also exists for a ball bat that provides the batter with enhanced feedback during use.