The torpedo bat won't be going away anytime soon based on MLB commissioner Rob Manfred's latest comments on the craze.
Baseball's specialized bats which took over the league at the start of the season are perfectly legal per the rulebook but have still stirred up controversy over their unorthodox bowling-pin bat structure.
Manfred spoke in a Q&A with the New York Times about the future of torpedo bats and explained why he thought they were "good for baseball."
"They’re absolutely good for baseball," Manfred said. "I believe that issues like the torpedo bat and the debate around it demonstrate the fact that baseball still occupies a unique place in our culture, because people get into a complete frenzy over something that’s really nothing at the end of the day.
"The bats comply with the rules. Players have actually been moving the sweet spot around in bats for years. But it just demonstrates that something about the game is more important than is captured by television ratings or revenue or any of those things, when you have the discussions and debates about it."
Fans are certainly having discussions about it this season after the New York Yankees—who were the first to debut the torpedo bat—unleashed a barrage of homers during opening weekend and went on to make MLB history in their sizzling-hot start.
Baseball bat engineers have even weighed in on the topic and explained the "fallacies" surrounding the literal impact torpedo bats are having on the game.
With every single MLB team interested in getting their hands on the torpedo bat, and with Manfred's latest positive endorsement, the bat seems like it's going to be an intriguing and potentially permanent fixture of the sport moving forward.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Rob Manfred Shared Honest Take on MLB’s Torpedo Bat Craze.
