Baseball 2012: Bats and Nanocomposites

The September 2012 major league baseball pennant races are in high gear. I checked to see if baseball is by chance appearing in the nanotechnology patent literature. Apparently, the leading example is for better composite baseball bats. Some years ago, Easton had developed a Stealth CNT baseball bat (CNT, carbon nanotube).  Zyvex contributed nanotechnology to the effort.  This embedded link has some updated commentary on wooden, aluminum, and composite bats. Interesting how these can become “regulated” markets – need to protect the pitchers from rocket line drives off the bats. Also, perception exists that better bats would be some sort of undesirable performance enhancer. Some MLB teams, however, clearly need a lot more that advanced technology bats to make the playoffs and justify spending on the ticket prices.