There’s a small Louisiana company that is responsible for producing some of the best major league bats around.  Albert Pujols is their cover boy, and by all accounts, he’s a decent enough player to represent a quality product.  This is why we were intrigued with the Marucci Wiffle Stick.  None of us had played with a wood wiffle bat prior to this, and we thought we’d give it a go.

The first thing you need to know is that the company is excellent.  I placed my order online and specified colors and length in the comments but realized I forgot one bit of information, so I immediately called them to ask for a modification to the order.  The man on the phone informed me that he would just walk down to, “Steve,” who would be making my bat and have him change the order.  In my opinion, this is how a company should be run.  Naturally, we were excited to get the bat.

UPS dropped the bat off and we tore into it to realize that we weren’t looking at a bat, but a piece of art.  You see, the wood bat is far from ideal when striking a plastic ball, but the quality of construction, the feel in your hands, the custom cut, it all attributes to an absolutely stunning piece.  For $30, you’ll be hard pressed to find a better looking, better feeling bat, heck, it’s nicer to look at than ANY bat we’ve seen in the wiffle/blitzball market.

There is a lot to be desired with hitting a plastic ball with a wood bat.  The material is so hard that you get a crush effect, reducing pop, and thereby reducing distance as well.  But simply put, I didn’t care.  The bat sounds like wood when you hit it, it smells like wood, it swings like wood, and for that reason, I love it.  It would brighten my day to see someone put together a wood bat, slow pitch tournament.  I’d bet the first in line. Well done, Marucci.