Something that's always bothered me is: Why are some baseball bats hollowed out on the end? What's the purpose of that?

It may be to lighten the end of the bat to increase the velocity of the swing.

Never thought of that, but it makes sense.

Also reduces weight

That makes sense too. I watched part of a game yesterday where a guy hit a ball off the end of the bat causing the end to splinter. That could be one downside to the end being hollowed out.

Bat splintering is more a function of trying to hit a hard object moving at 90+ mph with a stick.

bat splintering is also a function of maple vs ash bats

the woods fail in different ways

Hey want as much weight in the barrel as possible. That’s why the handles are so thin.

Eric

how bout the cork filled bats?

Illegal. I mean undocumented. No wait self identifies as the same wood.

With the devastation of Ash trees from the EOB... More bats will hafto be made from maple or maybe even hickory idk. Sooner or later we’re gonna run out of Ash bats

Most wood bats splinter because they hit the ball with the wrong part of the grain running along the length of the bat.

Concave end bats have been around a long while. Bat speed and balance of weight.
Wondering about top heavy bats-ask a Little Leaguer who is using the new USA stamped bats in the "big barrel" design (2 5/8")

Ask Sammy Sosa who played for the Cubs awhile back. His cork filled bat shattered during a game and he was ejected. Told everybody that it was his Pregame bat that he used to impress the Crowd with LONG Home Rums during Batting Practice.

That was funny!

Sammy So-So came to spring ball that 1 year and it looked like his head grew 3 sizes. They call it wearing the big hat!

If I recall correctly, Lou Brock of the St. Louis cardinals was one of the first, if not the first, to use that style bat. The reason was not about weight. It was about balls hit off the end of the bats. With the flatter end hitters are more likely to hit balls harder than with the crown style bats.

Lou found those bats while playing with the Cards doing exhibition games over in Japan one year before spring training.

Most players that use them are non power hitters, more the type player that has to run out a lot of infield grounders to get hits.