Inventor Ward Dill, an MIT grad with decades of woodworking expertise, recently developed a solution to address the problem of wood baseball bats breaking in the major leagues, while providing a viable, safer alternative to metal bats used by children. His solution is a new category of bats he calls “joined solid wood” baseball bats and he founded a new company, the Radial Bat Company.
What makes Radial Bats™ unique is the way they are constructed. A conventional wood baseball bat is cut from one piece of wood. The Radial Bat™ is created by milling 12 solid wood wedges that are brought together to form a stronger bat with a larger sweet spot (the optimum hitting surface on a bat).
When a traditional wood bat breaks, the handle of the bat (where a batter’s hands are located) separates from the barrel of the bat (the hitting surface) and flies away quickly in the direction of other players or spectators causing potential physical harm. If a Radial Bat™ were to ever crack, it would sustain damage to one of the 12 wedges, with the remaining 11 wedges holding the bat in place, without a large shard of wood becoming trajectory.
“My passion for baseball is what drove me to develop the Radial Bat,” says its inventor and company owner, Ward Dill. “I can see the Radial Bat as a solution for the problem of bats breaking in the major leagues, in addition to addressing the safety concerns of parents wary of their children using metal bats in little league and high school baseball.”
The Radial Bat Company backs up its new bat technology with a one-year-guarantee. They will replace or repair any Radial bat™ that cracks due to normal use. So far, none of the bats in use have been turned in under the guarantee. In a pressure test conducted by the Radial Bat Company, their bat was able to hold 53% more weight than a traditional wood bat under a proportional stress test.
Tim Bausher, a former minor league player, briefly called up to the major leagues by the Boston Red Sox, and now the manager of alliances for the Company states “The Radial Bat feels like no other bat I have swung in my career. Currently, in my spare time as a coach for a team of 16 and 17-year-old players, I encourage them to use wood bats, because they will become better hitters. The shatter-proof technology of the Radial Bat gives parents the feeling of safety that should allow all young players to stop using metal bats and switch to Radial Bats™ for safety and performance reasons.”
Radial Bat Institute is the parent company of Radial Bat and is based in Warren, New Jersey. Founded by Ward Dill in 2007, the company has patents pending for the new “joined solid wood” baseball bat technology.
Public Relations Contact: Rosica Strategic Public Relations