Sam Bat Blog — maple bats

Pro Selects are one of our most asked for Sam Bats, but what are they? A few years ago the Sam Bat Team was brainstorming and I put forth the name Pro Select for one of our bat segments. Now this name has stuck and been copied across the bat industry!  This really goes to show you never know what impact you are going to have. A SAM BAT Pro Select is a bat that was made for an actual Pro order during the year. Pro Orders are very exact. Barry Bonds for example swung a 34 inch 31.8 ounce...

The MMO has been around since the very early days of SAM BAT and has always been one of our most popular models. It has hovered consistently in the 4th or 5th bat position overall. Staff always wondered why it was not chosen more. Many thought that this model did not get the attention that it deserved.    After 25 years the MMO has really taken off! It was a slow build, everyone here on staff thought it was cool, first one order, then another and another. Now it is our most popular model across the board! The MMO is based off the M110 profile,...

Continued from our previous blog post! WHY DID SAM CHOOSE MAPLE? When Sam was first tasked to find a better wood than ash for baseball bats by then Rockies scout Bill McKenzie, he wasn’t quite sure what wood could be better. He was great at working with wood and knew the different characteristics of a lot of wood, but had never tried to make a baseball bat. Sam spent countless hours in the library researching different types of wood from oak, to hickory, to beech, to walnut, and finally to maple.  You cannot just use any type of wood to...

SAM BAT – The setting and the Bar Challenge, Mayflower Pub How the first approved maple baseball bat was born….. Sam Holman was strolling down Elgin Street on the way to his favorite spot the Mayflower Pub for a pint of Creemore Springs Ale. It was a cold spring day in 1996 and he pulled the collar of his windbreaker up which covered his well-worn signature overalls and a T shirt. He was tired, the day hadn’t quite gone as planned.  Heading around to the back to where the regulars entered, he pulled open the heavy carved wood door. The...

This is a question at SAM BAT we get every day and frankly it is a great question! Many people think these  maple bats must be ‘better’ or give you some advantage. When Sam created the first pro approved maple bat back in 1997, changing the bat industry, he did a lot of research on the properties of maple. Wood is a natural biomaterial. Mother Nature does not make two maple trees exactly the same. Even within each maple tree there is variation, they may be similar but not exactly the same. Every piece of wood is not the same weight....