BB Bat Company Youth Baseball Bats
BB Bat Company Youth Baseball Bats
Tim McCabe’s baseball bats are a home run with young ballplayers for one very simple reason: McCabe makes bats specifically for ages 14 and under. “If you go into Dicks and buy a youth bat from a big-name company,” says McCabe, 48, “they just take the adult models and shrink them down. They have machines, like big wood-chippers, and every minute it will spit out bats, with no quality control.” At BB Bat Company, McCabe custom-makes bats, from 26 to 32 inches long, for kids all over the U.S., using either maple, ash or birch. The wood goes through an industrial lathe in McCabe’s Virginia Beach workshop, then McCabe begins the process of repeatedly sanding, coating and coloring until the finished article is ready to swing. “They’re old-school handmade,“ says McCabe. “We’re giving kids bats that are made the same way a pro’s bats are made.”
McCabe had the idea for BB Bat Company in 2007, after attending his then-9-year-old son Brandon’s practices and games. McCabe says it took him a good year to figure out and produce a good product, and he created “a lot of firewood” before he got it right and opened shop in 2008. Today, he makes around 300 bats per month. Meanwhile, 15-year-old Brandon is now a pitcher with the Richmond Braves college development program. So in a few years there may be more than one McCabe with thousands of adoring young fans. $48. BBBatCompany.com
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