If you’ve ever been to a Cape League baseball game, you’ve heard an unmistakable sound: a wood bat colliding with a baseball. But, what you might not have heard is why wood bats are used in the summer when these players swing aluminum all season.
Pittsburgh Pirates scout Jesse Flores said it’s to show the scouts how well the players are able to handle and hit, while also giving players a small introduction to life in the Major League.
“It assimilates the next level that they want to play at," Flores said. "I think most of these guys have aspirations of playing major league baseball. And you can watch them in that element, using wood bats every day.”
And when the scouts watch, they get as close to the action as possible. They stand in rows behind home plate, dissecting each players’ swing and taking notes against the chain link fence.
Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox player Dillon Persinger said, to get good reactions from the scouts, and the ball, you have to be much more exact.
“I feel like if you square the ball up, it’s the same as with a normal metal bat," Persinger said. "So, you just gotta hit it on the sweet spot a little more often than not.”
Metal bats can be much more forgiving, allowing players to get hits more often. Adjusting to the needed precision isn’t always a smooth transition. Players can feel the differences and sometimes struggle with finding their swing.
YD infielder J.J. Muno said, early on your at-bats aren’t always what you want them to be.
“The first couple weeks, especially the first week here, you get some [at-bats], where you’re not comfortable with it," Muno said. "But you kind of get used to it as time goes on.”
YD Manager Scott Pickler agreed. He’s led the Red Sox to a championship win the past 2 years, and he is going for a third this year. Pickler is very involved in his players’ batting practices. He said he's confident that after their adjustment period ends, his players are able to hit as they should.
“I just think it takes the two weeks to get them used to swinging a wood bat," he said. "And after that the good hitters are going to hit."
And some players who fully adjust fall in love with wood bats. YD’s Brendan Skidmore is one of those players who actually prefers them to the aluminum ones.
“Personally, I like them better," Skidmore said. "You know when you’re on the sweet spot and you know how your swing feels. I like it a lot."
This love of the wood bat feel is what got local bat making company, Barnstable Bat Company involved in the Cape Cod Baseball League. President Tom Bednark said players were the ones coming to the company, testing the bats, and asking to use them in games.
“We started making bats for the Cape League in 1994, when word got around that we were making bats and players from around the Cape League came around to see our little operation," Bednark said. "And then they started saying, 'Can we use these in games?' And I said, 'Yeah, why not? Let’s start going for game play bats.'”
The love of the Cape League is what got Barnstable Bat Company started. Bednark has been going to Cape League games his whole life, but he remembers being especially interested in the bats during the early 90s.
“We noticed there were a lot of wood bats breaking," he said. "I’m a woodworker by trade, and my gene pool kind of brings me into wood working. So what happened is, one day while we were at a game, I said I’d like to try to make some baseball bats. And that was, I think, in 1990. And we started investigating the wood bat business, and we felt there was an opening for us, so we started making bats.”
More than 20 years later, Barnstable Bat Company bats are still a common sight in the Cape Cod Baseball League. And, much like every other part of the Cape League, the bats are no stranger to Major League Baseball. Having spent 9 years being used in the majors, these wood bats are another way the Cape League helps its players get a feel for their futures.
