Batmaker Manuel Bouffard is busy sanding and sawing in Quebec City’s B45 Baseball factory, trying to keep up with the demand for the sport’s latest fad.
Standing over a machine that carves baseball bats from wooden cylinders in just two and a half minutes, Bouffard is making many more torpedo bats of late.
Unlike a regular bat, the torpedo was designed by a former Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) physicist to bring the most amount of wood or mass to the part of the bat where contact most often happens.
“It’s a big thing right now,” said Bouffard. “It’s new stuff, so obviously people want to try it.”
While several manufacturers make the bat, B45 Baseball has been making torpedoes for nearly a year. In the past week, demand has surged.
It’s due in part to Major League Baseball’s opening weekend, when the New York Yankees clubbed a record number of home runs — and many players used the torpedo bat.
The bat itself doesn’t mean players will increase their number of home runs, but it’s definitely a tool some are using to try to level up their performance, says Marie-Pier Gosselin, B45 Baseball general manager.
“It really caught the attention of the public,” she said.
“As of last Saturday, demand for torpedoes was zero. And now that’s basically all the requests we’ve been getting.”
It’s 25 times more than what the company would usually expect, she says. Just this week, they received interest from about 30 MLB players who want to try them.
Davis Schneider, with the Toronto Blue Jays, already uses the bat, and Gosselin says he has another order on the way.
“That’s kind of the reason why it brought a bit more attention to us,” she said.
“It’s a small plant, it’s a small team, so we’re a little tired. We didn’t expect that for sure, but it’s exciting.”
Assistant general manager Olivier Lepine doesn’t know how long the trend will last.
“If people like it, they like the feeling of it and they feel like they can hit the ball harder and more often, the torpedo bat will stick for a long time,” he said.
The bat is legal in the MLB, says Lepine, despite some alleging the innovation should not be used.
Rules stipulate the bat must be made from one piece of wood and cannot be more than 2.61 inches in diameter and 42 inches in length.
Although there has been some change to bats when it comes to its knob, Lepine says the torpedo is one of the first times he’s seen such a change to the barrel.
“I don’t think this bat can fit for everybody,” he said.
“The balance is not the same. Instead of having most of the weight towards the end, you got the weight closer to your hand.”
While some say the torpedo makes for a faster swing, he’s hesitant to rule the bat as a gamechanger.
“I need to see more results before saying that it’s so much better than a normal bat,” said Lepine.
“I guess time will tell.”
