The Process

The attention to detail throughout the whole manufacturing process is what separates the Phoenix Bat Company from every other wooden bat manufacturer.

Beginning at the mills, Phoenix Bats will only choose the finest quality of Rock Maple, Yellow Birch, and Northern White Ash wood and will reject wood that other wooden bat manufacturers will normally accept. The mills refer to Phoenix Bats as the pickiest of the bat manufacturers, a compliment that the Phoenix Bat Company wears as a badge of honor. The wood Phoenix selects is cut into billets and shipped to the company's shop. Once the wood reaches the Phoenix Bat Company's manufacturing shop, every piece is hand graded for quality and weight.

When an order is placed with Phoenix Bats, the wood is then refined and shaped on the most state of the art lathe in the wooden bat manufacturing industry. The lathe owned by Phoenix is the only one operating in the baseball and softball bat manufacturing industry, and it cuts and sands the wood to amazing precision. This means that the Phoenix Bat Company can offer their customers the opportunity to get a Phoenix Bat with the exact same specifications years or season apart, so it will always feel like you are swinging the same bat.

The Company's attention to detail isn't lacking when it comes to the finishing process of wooden bats. Phoenix Bats finishes each bat to the specifications and desires of their customer. New generation finishes add strength and beauty by sealing the pores of the wood for a smooth, hard surface which causes the ball to jump off the bat, with minimal marking . No "rubbing" required!

Phoenix Bats produces bats made from the highest quality of Rock Maple, Yellow Birch and Northern White Ash woods. A bat that is produced from Rock Maple wood will offer more pop for bigger, more powerful hits. Due to this power, baseball bats that are cut out of Rock Maple wood are the bats most often chosen by professional players. The grain of the wood is less visible and has a beautiful appearance when finished, making it a better bat for engraving purposes.

A wooden baseball bat produced out of Northern White Ash wood will offer more flex/give to the hitter. Pros who swing ash tend to choose it because they feel it gives them the best opportunity to hit to where they want, spraying the ball around the field. While an ash bat doesn't offer as much pop as a bat produced from Maple wood, it does offer a longer "sweet spot" -- the area where you want to hit to maximize power.

Yellow birch, the newest wood to hit the world of wood bats, has gained steam with those players who tend to want a bit more power while maintaining some of the control of an ash bat. Birch is closer to the hardness of maple (actually hardening the more you hit with it), yet with the some of the flex found in an ash bat.

The company suggests that if a hitter tends to take the ball off the end of the bat, the hitter should choose a wooden bat that is produced with White Ash wood. If a hitter tends to get jammed (hitting the ball off the handle) often, the company suggests that the hitter choose a bat that is produced with Maple wood. If a hitter tends to be all over the place when he doesn't hit it square or is new to swinging wood, birch is the recommended choice.

So, why aren't all woods available for every bat Phoenix Bats offers? Because weight matters. To produce a bat that ignores proper weight for the batter negates all the good that comes from practicing and/or playing with a wood bat. For example, while Rock Maple is the hardest wood, it would produce too heavy a bat for a youth or for a fungo, thus a different species of maple is used for such. Too heavy a bat leads to dragging the barrel head through the hitting zone and turning wrists. Too light a bat yields a golf-like swing, often seen in players swinging stupid-light metal bats. It also negatively impacts durability. Phoenix Bats chooses the woods to offer for each line of bat that best balance swingability versus durability.

For more information on wood types, click here.