BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] In the field of baseball, the time spent in batting practice usually is far greater than that actually spent during a game. The necessity of batting practice is recognized by batting coaches from little league through amateur, recreational, varsity college and all stages of professional play. The need for batting practice has grown to the extent that a number of batting cages have developed including pitching machines as well as live pitchers to provide the batter with a series of pitches, as many as 600 per hour, to sharpen the batter's skills. Batting practice can take a tremendous toll on the bats used. Not only is there danger of wooden bats breaking, but they develop what is known as chipping and scuffing, as well as cracking. Metal bats produce loud sounds in a batting cage with a number of batters simultaneously practicing. Metal bats, in addition to the sound often suffer dents that make the bat unattractive, undesirable and often useless.

[0002] The batting coach often relies on the sound of the bats striking the ball as an indication of quality of the hit. The reliance on sound can be misleading, however, since often batters will try to cut the ball, that is, a downward swing to get back spin and loft. This adds particularly to the tendency to chip wooden bats and raising the grain to the extent that you can actually peel splinters off the bat.

[0003] I am a professional ball player and have instructed in batting employing batting cages for a number of years and have recognized the above problems. It occurred to me that it would be desirable to minimize the likelihood of chipping, splitting, cracking or denting of bats if it would be possible to have some kind of a protective cover that did not interfere with the batting training.

[0004] I explored the prior art and found that most of the additions to the contact zone or head region of the bat are in the form of temporary added weights of one form or another. These are often called “donuts” because of their shape and used primarily for swinging the bat in preparation for the time at the plate. They are substitute for the time honored practice of swinging two bats in preparation for one's time at bat. No attempt is made to actually strike the ball with a weight or “do-nut” in place.

[0005] Also attempts have been made to put attachments on bats to add weight distributed over the head region of the bat or its face. Examples of such devices are shown in: 1

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0006] Faced with the foregoing state of the art, it appeared to me that it should be possible to put a protective cover on a baseball bat used in practice in a manner that would not significantly change its weight, feel, or shape but protect the bat from developing the foregoing described problems. I found that I could use a thin natural rubber tube of {fraction (1/32)}″ to ⅛″ wall thickness when unstretched and the length in the order of 9 inches and a diameter of approximately ⅔ the diameter of the baseball bat head. I found that I could roll such a sleeve onto a bat beginning at its head and it was hardly noticeable since it changed the diameter of the bat and its weight insignificantly.

[0007] When used in practice, not only did the sleeve reduce the tendency of the batting surface to become worn, chipped, splinter, or split, but it reduced the sound of impact and reduced the vibration transmitted to the hands of the batter. This allowed him more practice with less tiring of the hands. Likewise, the batting coach can easily detect the sound of any hit outside of the intended contact zone since it will carry with it the classic metal or wood impact sound. A coach could therefore be observing one or more players while batting and audibly detect any major batting errors by other practicing batters. I have found that players do not object to the protective sleeve as affecting their batting and as I indicated above, actually favor the less shock to be transmitted to their hands allowing greater practice without tiring.

[0008] I found that a simple tube of uniform diameter is effective and owing to the bat contact zone shape, there is no tendency of the sleeve to slide off the bat in use. I have also learned, in the case of metal bats, with a plastic end, that it is desirable that the outer end of the sleeve cover the joint between the metal bat and the end plug. When so installed, the sleeve acts as a safety feature, as well, since end plugs commonly become loosened and fly out of the end of the bat. A slight overlapping of the sleeve over the end plug reduced the likelihood of presents that occurrence.

[0009] I have also found that it is possible to mold a rubber sleeve to cover the entire end cap with a somewhat smaller diameter toward the handle. Such an embodiment definitely prevents the end cap of the metal cap from departing the bat.