The viral demand for “torpedo” baseball bats has put Victus Sports, a Pennsylvania factory, to work at full speed. Inside and outside of the Major Leagues, there are players who want to try the bat and witness that it is not just a misleading campaign.
Demand outside of MLB
A 70-year-old man, a player in a local adult baseball league, visited the factory this week because he needed bats for the new season. His name is Ed Costantini, from Newtown Square, and before picking up four of these bats, the VOLPE11-TPD Pro Reserve Maple model, he tried them out in the batting cage. The result surprised him after dozens of swings and hitting the ball, that test that often makes professionals choose a bat.
“The acid test I used was to be able to see where the ball marks were. The swings were hitting the thickness of the torpedo, not the tip of the bat,” Costantini said.
More than just the All-Stars want to try the torpedo – a striking design in which the wood shifts further down the barrel after the label and gives it a shape similar to that of a bowling pin – Costantini’s purchase highlighted the growing interest in baseball’s new and shiny toy outside of Major League Baseball.
When thinking of home runs, the fan’s mind flies to the gigantic distances a ball can reach when hit just on the tip, or to a historic chase that captivates a nation.
The Yankees were the ‘culprits’
When Paul Goldschmidt and Cody Bellinger hit back-to-back home runs for the New York Yankees last Saturday, opening a streak of nine home runs. Victus Sports, known for its vibrant bats painted like pencils or the Phillie Phanatic dressed as a Royal Guard, had three employees at the game, who witnessed something brewing at Yankee Stadium that was going to hit them in the factory. Business was already on the road to prosperity.
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