Jul 10, 2011 Posted by admin on Jul 10, 2011 in Featured, Fields & Equipment, Special Interest | 0 comments

Product Review : Warstic Bats

After receiving our Warstic White Ash bat here at the corporate offices of SFNABA, a few players from the Diablos and All Blacks decided to give it a test run inside the not so friendly confines of San Quentin prison. What better way to get a feel for the new lumber than to play under a certain sense of danger and immediacy? Who knows, if everything fell apart in there, we might have needed it to tunnel out from under the left field retaining wall.

So in the Warstic went with us into San Quentin, who’s inmates have been playing baseball for 80 years. Only in the past 15 have they allowed outsiders in to test their mettle against the inmates, much to the delight of both the home team and ‘The Willing’, as the visitors are ultimately called. Nothing like playing a team who only has home games. There are two squads there, the Giants and the more recently-organized A’s – the latter of the two were our opponents that day.

The sheriff deputy that manned the gate gave us a stern and gruff warning when we showed up early for this product placement photo. Much the tenor inside the gates as well, I’m guessing, permission and privileges are all earned. After many please and pretty pleases, we were able to set up and take this glamorous shot of Fonz making his best Shawshank Redemption impression. Unfortunately, no cameras are allowed inside the gates. We then dutifully submitted our IDs and went through a eerily loose bag check and made our way inside.

The Q was surprisingly passive. Most of us have never played an evening game there before and surprised about how calm ‘The Yard’ seemed. The midday games feature bare-chested inmates getting their daily walk in while spectating, circling the field like one would find at The Haj in Mecca, creating a vortex of muscles and gang affiliation tattoos of various symbol and statement. Today, however, the Canadian Geese in center field were the majority.

Back to the Warstic – either through a visual illusion of the color-dipped end, or merely by design, the bat was fairly top-heavy (much like most of the SFNABA wives-and-girlfriend fan base). A thin handle, but being a long 33 1/ 2 in length, it was a great choice against the opposing pitcher, Junkyard, who threw just that. Bending curveballs and diving change ups were just a few of his tools that he fashioned himself after many seasons behind bars. With a short porch in right, your left-handed author was thinking Yahtzee from the get go. Alas, my swing that day could have constituted as cruel and unusual punishment.

One comment from our fellow players on The Willing was that the bat was LOUD. Solid contact made the Warstic cackle emphatically in delight.

With the rotation of a new warden inside San Quentin, the players were no longer allowed to have wooden bats – either because of safety or budget concerns. However, when approached with the prospect of having a wood bat game, the inmates responded enthusiastically. Nothing like purists. So, the Warstic swapped sides over the course of several innings, with the inmates having a go and The Willing taking some cuts. All in all, the Warstic was a success and saw a number of return customers.

So – the Warstic is certainly a unique bat, and was a good participant in a truly unique game of baseball. We, as a league, were gracious for the opportunity to test drive it, as were the inmates of San Quentin.

SFNABA members – you’re able to stock up on Warstics yourself – they’re giving us 20% off on the entire collection. Go ahead and grab some for your playoff run.