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The Toronto Star – The Saturday Star www.thestar.com June 27, 1998 Canseco regains his power with the new bat – By Jim Proudfoot “ The Sam Bat was approved by baseball headquarters for 1998 and Jose Canseco gives it a share of the credit for the restoration of his long lost power.” Canseco: “This is a harder wood. The ball travels further off of it. … The old bat dents when you make good contact, which means energy is being absorbed and you can feel it vibrate when you connect. With the Sam Bat, more of the power I generate...

The New York Times Friday, June 19, 1998 A Bid to Build a Better Bat Uses Maple to Battle the Traditional Ash Need Good Wood? A Batmaker Tries Maple; Sam Holman makes maple bats for major leaguers. -  By Jack Curry “Joe Carter was standing behind the plate… sermonizing about his bat. How it allowed him to whip through the strike zone faster and how other major leaguers will ultimately want one.” “Carter, bat evangelist as well as a member of the Orioles, at last persuaded Pat Borders of the Cleveland Indians – formerly his teammate in Toronto – to...

The Ottawa Citizen Monday, May 4, 1998 Building a better baseball bat; Sam Holman’s maple bats are a hit with baseball’s sluggers. By Kelly Egan “Mr. Holman… shook up baseball’s establishment this spring when he convinced the tradition-bound league to approve, for the first time since the 1930’s, a bat not made of white ash.” Joe Carter: “I like it a lot… The bat doesn’t split like regular ash does… When you use an ash bat for batting practise, after one day, really, it starts to splinter and split on you and becomes soft. Maple is a much harder wood....

The Ottawa Sun Thursday, April 30, 1998 The Batman Cometh; Sam Holman’s unlikely marriage of maple and baseball could revolutionize the grand old game. By Mike Gibb “Dressed in shabby overalls and wearing reading glasses, Sam Holman carries nothing with him that would indicate he is on the edge of a baseball revolution.” “… Sam Holman has created the longest-lasting wood bat in baseball history.” “Maple is also used for pool cues, bowling pins and light airplane propellers. Holman kiln dries the wood, so there is no moisture to weigh it down… “I knew I had to put maple on...

Canadian Workshop April 1998 Ottawa’s Very Own Bat Man By Robert Koci “Bats are pretty simple until you make thousands of them,” says Holman. “That’s where the details and complexities of bat design begin to absorb you.” “The label is always placed over the flat grain. That way, when the batter holds the bat with the label toward his body, he knows he will make contact with the ball on a tight grain and generate more drive. Holman tells his hitters to “look into the eyes of the bat.”