Cleveland Indians: Players make history, and so do their bats

Several Cleveland Indians’ players are part of history in using the “Sam bat”.

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What do a 72 home run season, a maple stair banister, 762 career home runs, a triple crown, four Rookie of the year awards, a garage in Ottawa, Ontario Canada, and 12 MVP seasons have in common?

Baseball history.

Sam Holman, a stagehand at the National Arts Center in Ottawa, was sitting at the Mayflower Pub one night, chatting with Bill MacKenzie, his friend and professional baseball league scout. Bill spoke about the issues players were having with breaking so many ash bats; he asked Sam if he could come up with an answer to the problem.

Sam studied tree species, physics and baseball rules. He came to the conclusion that only rock maple with straight grain and minimal flaws could withstand the pressure after the bat meets the ball. Sam would only use the best wood.

In 1996, from his garage in Ottawa, Sam crafted his first bat from a maple stair banister. He took the bat down to the Ottawa Lynx baseball stadium and watched his creation smash the ball out of the park. Sam was told, “if you want to keep that bat, you had better put your name on it”.  And that’s exactly what Sam did.

The “Sam Bat” had its first big league test at the Sky Dome in Toronto where, through a mutual friend, he had Joe Carter, Ed Sprague and Carlos Delgado test the bat. The results were out of the park! About a month later Joe Carter would debut the bat in a major league game. He would go on to crush a home run with it.

Carter showed a friend and fellow baseball star Barry Bonds the bat, and history was about to be made. Barry set the single season record with 73 home runs in one season, and hit record-setting home run number 762 with the Sam Bat as well.

Currently, the Cleveland Indians have Jason Kipnis, Rajai Davis, Carlos Santana and the newest member of the tribe, Juan Uribe all using a Sam Bat. 200 plus other big league sluggers such as Robinson Cano, Prince Fielder, Bryce Harper and Miguel Cabrera also swing the “Rideau Crusher” (stamped on every Sam Bat, named after the Rideau River in Ottawa).

The game of baseball is rich in history and some are holding it in their hands.