by Wayne Ramsey

Created on: April 06, 2007   Last Updated: October 24, 2010

Baseball has lost a great deal of popularity over the last several years since the player's strike, but still truly remains American's national pastime. It is because of this that stadiums have popped up all over the country and children have been joining baseball teams in droves for years. It is a game that all people can play and learn with relative ease, regardless of your skill level. You don't have to be a great player to be on a team, because it's such a team oriented game that you could play the game well as a team, with horrible players, and still stand a chance at winning games.

With all this love for the game of baseball, Major League Baseball has grown considerably over the last few decades, opening numerous expansion league teams, and placing stadiums all over the country. Even minor league teams are growing in considerable numbers. But with all these players, comes a greater need for higher technology and for better training methods. One of the most recognized pieces of training equipment is the baseball donut.

At every baseball game you watch, if you look close enough at the on deck circle you are bound to eventually see someone swinging around a bat, with a large rubber donut around the top of it. This of course, is aptly named a bat donut. The donut is meant to give the baseball bat extra weight, so that when the batter gets up to the plate and removes the donut, the bat will feel lighter and their body will be able to swing faster and harder. This method of course has been in use for decades and is one of the most popular rituals that batters take advantage of prior to batting.

But, regardless of how deeply ingrained this practice may be in the sport, it is far from being the best method. Using a donut has been pulled from many minor league teams, because it causes a difference in how the batter swings. With the weight at the end of the bat at a single location, the batter can have a substantial difference in the angle of their swing. Because of the donut, many younger batters will swing downward at the ball immediately after using the donut.

To remedy this, there is now a new method available that is meant to do the same thing as the donut, without all of the negative side effects of it. The new method is literally a weighted sleeve that fits the entirety of the bat barrel. With this method, the bat is now evenly weighted and results in a much more even swing than the donut, with the weight at the tip forcing the bat to dip downward. This essentially gives the batter the same feeling that they would have if they just had a heavier bat.

Another method that many players have been using for years is utilizing several bats. Rather than swinging a single bat, many players with take 2-4 bats and swing them all at once. By doing this, they are increasing the weight considerably, but don't experience the downward pull on the end of the bat by the donut.

Regardless of what method you choose to use while batting, the donut is still the most popular method in use by both professionals and amateurs alike. It has definitely been around the longest and has a huge place in the history of baseball technology. It appears that regardless of the new technologies that are developed, many will still stick with what has worked for generations before, and in this case, it is the baseball bat donut.

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