In 2006, Dr. James A. Sherwood, Patrick J. Drane and Rebecca Shaw contributed to a book called “The Engineering of Sports”. Their study performed at the Lowell/UMASS MLB Testing Facilities show scientifically the proper way to test a solid-wood baseball bat in extreme, realistic conditions in a controlled environment. (see book notes below) One of the main points stressed when testing a solid-wood bat, is that the bat should be supported at the handle area when testing to simulate the batters hands on the baseball bat. There is never a realistic instance of a bat coming into contact with a baseball without some type of support in the handle area (Fig: A) Without this simulated handle support, any solid-wood bat would catastrophically fail upon testing. A scenario like that never happens under realistic conditions. To test a bat without simulated support in the handle area (Fig: C) would guarantee failure every time. It is considered by expert engineers as a Test to Fail procedure. This test is equal to throwing a bat at 30-mph, in mid air, at a 95-mph pitched ball. At no time during gameplay do conditions like this ever happen. It is not a scientific way to test a bat in order to get a final determination for performance unless the ultimate goal is to make the bat fail at all cost.

Ultimately, on-field testing is the only way to know if a bat truly performs in a safe manner without changing the integrity of the game, performance of the bat and the ball-exit speed. The facilities at Lowell/UMASS (Fig:B) have invented a test machine that comes the closest to simulating realistic on-field conditions. It is in this manner that all solid-wood bats were tested with the “Bat Glove” applied and each time the “Bat Glove” passed all tests with a 100% success rate that eliminated flying debris and tethering/hinging caused by broken and shattered bats during gameplay.

The Bat Glove’s polymeric film was applied to bats using the “Fig: B” method at MLB’s certified testing facilities at Lowell/UMASS on 12 large barrel, skinny handled professional model maple bats. Pitch speeds ranged from 120-mph to as high as 198-mph with a 100% success rate with keeping the barrel end of the bat attached to the handle after the bat failed. All approved safety devices for the MLB must be tested and approved at Lowell/UMASS before final determination of on-field use.

The Bat Glove’s amazing ability to reduce flying debris on broken baseball bats was also tested using the “incorrect or test-to-fail procedure” by Rawlings Sporting Goods (Fig: C) yet the Bat Glove performed with an amazing 86% success rate under unrealistic conditions that would never be encountered on the playing field. All solid-wood bats must be tested and certified by the Baseball Research Center at Lowell/UMASS prior to being used in the MLB as noted on their RAWLINGSGEAR.com website.

All Bat Glove tests performed at the MLB Baseball research center at Lowell/UMASS passed with a 100% success rate under extreme-realistic conditions.

*NOTE: Lowell/UMASS was funded with a $400K grant in 1998 from Rawlings Sporting Goods and MLB in order to conduct realistic controlled environment studies.

*NOTE: The Brett Brothers also did a comprehensive study with John Thomas Axtell called: “EXPERIMENTAL DETERMINATION OF BASEBALL BAT DURABILITY”

Below, is the “Experimental Investigation of Baseball Bat Durability”, written by Patrick J. Drane, Dr. James A. Sheerwood and Rebecca H. Shaw verifying the proper testing procedures for a solid wood bat in a controlled environment in order to obtain extreme-realistic data as to performance for final determination of performance.