Baseball Bats History

Baseball has been around hundreds of years in one form or the other, and back in the early days there were all kinds of different types and shapes of bats used.  It wasn’t until the mid 18th Century that it was decided that bats with long, rounded barrels were the best for this sport, and this led to the standard ruling that bats could be of any length, but should have a barrel diameter of no larger than 2.5″.  This was later updated in the 1860’s to also restrict the length to no more than 42″, and this rule is still in force to this day.

For many years there was no rules at all regarding the shape of the bat, and some players introduced flat sided bats for bunting, which is a technique that deadens the ball, (the bat is held still in the striking zone and not swung, to reduce the power of the strike when the ball hits the bat), so that baserunners and the hitters can all advance whilst the opposing fielders are busy running in to make a play.