For his first day of work in June 1999, Scott Smith arrived at the makeshift bat factory, a three-level brick corner house in ...

Step into the world of maple wood baseball bat creation, where skilled artisans transform raw wood into a finely crafted masterpiece. The journey begins with selecting the finest maple wood ...

Of lesser interest, the ol’ reliable wood bat itself. That was ... and about a dozen more birch or maple bats this spring.

“Remember when they had the maple wood bats when Bonds was using them and everyone saw Bonds hitting the ball a third of the way across McCovey Cove,” Krukow said. “Well, everybody wanted ...

The next year, 2,000. In addition to the maple bats' durability, players liked that they allowed them to hit for greater power; the hardness of the wood transmitted more energy from the bat to the ...