Hitting with BABE RUTH & HONUS WAGNER's 40-ounce Wood Bats

Ill never get tired of hearing the sound of a wooden bat

I'm so glad you are exploring the old school baseball bats. My friend Mathew and I have researched deep into this topic and have come to interesting theories and understandings
You have to remember that Shoeless Joe and Honus Wagner played in an era where the balls where sponges that could end up with over 2oz of spit and tobacco mass so you wouldn't be trying to swing with bat speed. Time to contact and hitting consistency where the 2 important qualities and the power all came from the bat's mass, not the pitch. The babe Ruth's live ball era balls were pretty friggin hard and can match even today's balls in firmness. That being said, the late era mickey mantle bat is very similar to the 110 model and it's shorter too, so it's heavy but it's balanced

About the different woods, stiffness increases mishit performance but also increases sting. As density goes up, stiffness goes up, but so does mass. . Mass decreases sting. This can counteract the sting with the right balance of density so certain woods do well in higher densities while others struggle. Hickory is very stiff so when it's light, the sting is abysmal, whereas birch, maple, and ash thrives. In higher densities, birch and hickory are the only 2 viable options. Forget about maple for anything below 42 pcf or above 48 pcf (pounds per cubic foot)

It’s also important to remember that Honus Wagner and shoeless Joe Jackson both played baseball during what’s called the “dead ball” era. They were not attempting to hit home runs with every swing most baseball was played within the three bases and part of what revolutionized baseball was the change in bat size that Babe Ruth would go on to use.

The sound of the bat hitting the ball is such a beautiful sound.

Even with pitchers having lower velocity back in the day than today, I still feel this video REALLY speaks to how freakishly strong and powerful people like Ruth and Mantle were back in their heyday. I can definitely understand where some of the legends of their light-tower power come from with bats like these.

I once swung Babe Ruth's actual bat, and yes, it was heavy. I also met his daughter and granddaughter on his 100th birthday. Those were some pretty exciting experiences.

People tend to forget Babe Ruth also pitched for 10 years of his career and held a 2.28 lifetime ERA. Played for 22 years and along with his 714 HR's had a .342 batting average.

6:45 man had his life flash before his eyes.lol😂

The ash wood that was available for bats from 100 years ago through the 60's was from slow growth northern forests and the wood was more closely grained and dense than wood that is now available. I had some ash bats made in the 60's (if not earlier - one was a Jackie Robinson model) and a friend's brother-in-law that played AAA ball loaned us his bats ( this was in the 80's). Believe me, there was no comparison - the modern bats vibrated like mad on impact and had little action compared to the old ash bats.

I could watch this guy hit home runs for hours. He’s awesome

I played in 18+ woodbat league for about 10 years. Most of the guys were close to half my age and were using all the current trends in bats like maple and composite. Being a child of the 80s, I insited on taking an old school approach. I started using Louisville slugger ash but i was breaking about 5 bats a season. I started to do more research and found a small bat company that had all this information posted on their page. Bear valley bats. In my analysis of the information they provided, i decided to have them make me 1 ash and 1 yellow birch. The yellow birch is a 33" 30oz bat. Very similar to the Easton Black magic i used growing up in regards to barrel, handle and weigh distribution. I absolutely love the way balls jump off that bat. Im not a power hitter but i feel that bat has put more life into my hitting. I used it for 6 seasons and still havent cracked it (aprx 70-80 ABs a year). It actually hits the opposite of ash. With ash you have to hit with the grain where as with yellow birch, you hit against the grain. The science behind bat materials is really interesting when you get into it.

Thank you guys for giving The Babe and the Mick their proper respect, you guys are products of modern baseball, and that's no fault of yours but I profoundly appreciate you giving props to the forbearers of so many baseball players who were inspired by the previous generations of players like the Babe and Mickey, Joe Jackson, Honus Wagoner and so many others who are unnamed and named in the Hall of Fame. I feel don't get respect from folks your age, and it makes me happy to see.

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PS: I was a music/sound editor for about 12 years, so I broke down your video and I absolutely love the fact that through 43 seconds (after removing talking, reactions, background noise and the sound of the pitch machine) you can hear the difference between the Mantle, the Ruth, the Wagoner and the Jackson bats.

For my musicians ear, I love the sound of the Wagoner bat, the Mantle, and the Ruth that the most. You can feel the weight behind Mantle and Ruth and just hear how strong they were, the Wagoner bat gives you the feel of someone who was calculating in the way that he swung a clean crisp sound off that bat. Jackson was a bit of both but just wanted to add some thoughts to my comment.

Always wanted to see this done. As an old player this video was a real blessing, thank you dudes.

You have to understand those bats were so dense. And they got real strong using then. If you look at guys like mantle and ghrirg they were cut from granite stone. Just massively strong.

Now Imagine the wrist and forearm strength it took to solidly connect on a Carl Hubbell screwball down in the zone with one of those big flint stones bats 😂

It's probably the best video I've watched on bats. Super cool to see what the old bats were like compared to modern Era wood. Thanks guys

Was at a Tigers game in 2018 and was able to handle a game used Ty Cobb bat for a few dollars and some loaned white gloves. Always neat experience, his wasn't over 40oz, but it gives you a greater appreciation what these guys accomplished when handling the equipment they used daily

This was a really fun video! I love seeing vintage things come to life in this modern era.

Great video and you did a great job with the larger bats. 39-40 ounces is a log, and people don’t realize how thick the handles are on those models - almost like grabbing a barrel of a modern bat. Guys like a Ruth, Aaron, Dick Allen who used larger bats.. tipped the bat down towards the plate to help get more momentum with the larger bats. Very cool video and thanks for sharing.

kudos to you..just watching the all time greats with the bats used in their deadball era to the live era was so entertaining and just to learn a thing or 2 was so cool of you..i am now a fan of your work.