Posted by: Bill T (bt2005@hotmail.com) on Sun May 8 21:04:22 2005

> My son has been using the same aluminum bat(a tpx gen1x by louisville slugger) going on his second season. He has probably taken well over 1500 hits with it in the batting cages and games combined. Do todays new aluminum bats lose there effectiveness or "pop" due to repeated usage. If so, are there any guidelines as to the number of hits a bat is generally effective for?
> thanks

ABSOLUTELY !!!! The new bats today lose their pop and can just plain out die out. The way to tell is it will give a dead hit where the ball doesnt drive off of the bat and the batter will feel intense vibration even when hitting on the sweet spot. The bat will eventually dent. I recommend Easton because of their 400 day warranty while everyone else offers 365 day......I have had that extra month come in handy on a Stealth (ALL STEALTHS DENT either during or at the end of your first season, especially the youth models). The technology in these bats calls for extremely thin aluminum which will fail after a certain amount of time. We got two solid years out of a CXN but it just died and I mean it died quickly. ITs the price you pay for "Pop" :-)