Bats

BAT RULES BY DIVISION

The USA Bat standard will make bats less "hot" and give a more "wood-like" performance compared to the old standard, which was easy to circumvent and ended up putting a lot of emphasis on expensive bats which were able to evade the standards. Bats were constantly being revoked and it was a major pain for all involved.

We believe that the right length and weight is important in developing a fundamentally strong swing, and that having a fundamentally strong swing has far more bearing on success on the field than the bat itself. We encourage families to buy low priced bats and plan on regular size upgrades. Many leagues facilitate this by offering gear-swap events prior to the season starting.

WOOD BATS

Solid one-piece wood bats are just wood and thus do not need any USABat or logo on them. They are commonly made of ash, birch, hickory or maple. However, engineered or composite wood bats are not just wood and do need a USABat logo on them. All bamboo bats are engineered bats.

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A SHORT HISTORY OF BAT STANDARDS

In the beginning, bats were made of wood. In 1974, the NCAA allowed for the first time metal alloy (aluminum) bats to be used. This was done to reduce the cost of broken wood bats, and the aluminum bats of the day offered performance similar enough to wood.

As you might imagine, technology doesn't stand still and bat manufacturers are always looking for a way to improve their product. The first change was the ability to thin out the walls of the bat making it far lighter without reducing its length. This led to a rule in 1986 limiting the difference of length (in inches) to weight (in ounces) to being no more than 3. This difference is called the "drop" of the bat, and so these bats are called "drop 3" bats, usually written as "-3". -3 was chosen to match the drop value of a typical wood bat.

This restriction did not apply to youth baseball leagues, because in addition to cost savings, these lighter metal bats were a great benefit to kids learning to play the game at a young age. If you look at your child's bat today, you'll see it's "drop" written on it. It's probably a "-12" if you are in Minors, and maybe a "-10" if you are in Majors.

By the late 90s, the new advances in material science which were revolutionizing sports like Tennis and Golf were changing baseball bats as well. The changes were less visible to most sports fans because MLB has remained an all-wood league. But by 1998, so many offensive records were being broken in the NCAA that a new kind of bat standard was needed. This first bat standard was called "BESR" and was adopted by the NCAA and the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) in 2003. This also required bats to be -3 and to be no more than 2 5/8 inches in diameter.

This standard was designed for metal alloy bats, which are the hottest when they are new. However, bat manufacturers were making new composite materials designed to get hotter with age, thus circumventing BESR. Once this was brought to light, there was an immediate ban on composite bats in 2009 until a new standard could be put in place in 2011. This new standard is called BBCOR, and is in force today.

Where BESR had failed, BBCOR has shined. More important than reducing a distorted offense, BBCOR has made the game safer for kids in high school and college.

Youth baseball has followed a similar path, but lagged behind a few years. The first standard for youth baseball bats was put into place in the BESR era and can be thought of as BESR for youth baseball. This standard was created by USSSA and is called "BPF". Little League quickly adopted this standard in 2008.

However, BPF has problems similar to BESR. In 2011, when BBCOR was introduced to the older kids, Little League put a ban on all bats with composite barrels, until manufacturers could prove they will not get "hotter" after they are broken in. Manufacturers who can prove this were put on the "legal composite bat list". For upper divisions, the ban on composite bats was more strict. It was a mess.

From 2011 to 2018, work was done to take the BBCOR standard and apply it to lighter bats. What was originally going to be called Youth BBCOR (Y-BBCOR) was instead branded as  "USABat". This new standard has been a collaboration between many youth baseball leagues under the umbrella of USA Baseball. Between this new standard and BBCOR, we are close to a universal and scientifically solid standard for years to come.

If you are wondering how the bat manufacturers are trying to defeat BBCOR, it seems they haven't had much luck. The main thing they have done is work to increase the sweet spot on the bat. The sweet spot on a top BBCOR bat is twice the size of a wood bat. However, the standard has worked so well that this year the NCAA adjusted the ball to allow for more offense!

USSSA BPF BAT STANDARD

There is one sour note: So far, USSSA is the only large youth organization who has not signed on to the new USABat standard. There is politics and money at play here - USSSA authorizes the old standard and gets money to have its logo put on each bat. While we hope USSSA will eventually come around, it does mean our families who also play outside of Little League may have to deal with duel standards. Some "travel ball" tournaments in the Bay Area, most notably NCTB (Twin Creeks) and NCA (Fremont) still allow USSSA bats. Some "city" summer tournaments require USABats, and some allow USSSA bats. USABat bats are legal in tournament using the USSSA standard, but not the other way around.