Word: bickel
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...found that white ash grown on eastern or northern slopes has a bat's best qualities-resiliency and strength. The most important ingredient is careful labor. So skilled an art is hand fashioning that H. & B. has only four qualified bat turners, overseen by 65-year-old Fritz Bickel. Bat turning, says Bickel, "is like painting and music. You've either got the exact touch or you haven...
...they wanted in the old days was plenty of wood," recalls Bickel. Ty Cobb swung a 42-oz. bat, and Babe Ruth sometimes used bats weighing 48 oz. But styles have changed, and players now prefer lighter bats that they can swing more quickly. The Cubs' Ernie Banks uses a 31-oz. bat; the Giants' Willie Mays never goes heavier than 33 oz. The shape has changed too. Only White Sox Second Baseman Nellie Fox still uses a thickhandled bat; the rest prefer a slim handle. H. & B. keeps an index of the types...