While the price of wood continues to soar, a wooden bat using ``Dake birch'', which grows wild in Hokkaido, was completed in an attempt to make a wooden bat used in hardball baseball with domestic materials, and a debriefing session was held.
More than 80% of the wood used for wooden bats is imported wood such as maple, and it is becoming difficult to obtain it as before due to soaring global wood prices and the effects of the new coronavirus.
Under such circumstances, a research team at the Hokkaido Forest Products Research Institute and others is working on the development of a wooden bat using "Dake birch", one of the broadleaf trees that grow naturally in Hokkaido, in order to make bats with domestic materials that can be stably obtained.
On the 16th, a debriefing session to actually use and evaluate the completed bat was held at the ground of the University of Tokyo baseball club in Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo.
At the debriefing session, batting practice by the members of the baseball club was open to the public. Among them, Kotaro Beppu, a third-year player who played a key role in the autumn league games of the Tokyo Big6 University Baseball, was strong in the outfield with a bat made of birch. I was hitting the ball.
Beppu said, "I have the impression that the feel of the bat is somewhere between a hard bat and a soft bat, and that it flies well when it hits the core. It's an easy-to-use bat, so I want it to increase."
After that, Hiroshi Akitsu, an expert researcher at the Hokkaido Research Organization Forest Products Research Institute, who conducted the research, found that indices such as ▽ strength, ▽ weight, and ▽ density were about the same as bats used in professional baseball. I explained.
Betula is abundant in resources and grows quickly, but it is not suitable for manufacturing furniture, etc. More than 90% of it is used for pulp chips, etc., and it is expected to lead to effective use of resources.
The wooden bat made of birch can be used in full-fledged amateur games from next season.
Expert researcher Akitsu said, "From now on, we would like to have many teams in the amateur baseball world use it, solve problems such as whether it can be supplied stably, and in a few years we would like to have it used in professional baseball." .
More than 80% of professional baseball bats are imported, soaring prices
Currently, more than 80% of the wood used in professional baseball bats is imported from North America, such as maple and white ash.
However, due to soaring global wood prices and the effects of the new coronavirus, it is becoming difficult to obtain as usual.
Due to the depletion of resources, the domestic timber used to make bats is almost impossible to obtain. It was a birch.
Betula seldom grows thick and is not suitable for manufacturing furniture, and more than 90% of it was used for pulp chips.
On the other hand, it takes about 60 to 80 years to reach a length of about 30 centimeters, which is necessary for bat material, and it grows relatively quickly compared to other trees, and it often grows in clusters, so it is also good to cut down. Research was underway whether it was a material suitable for bats because it was efficient.