Ok - I have been on this forum for a while and I see people with lots of bats and people with one old favourite, and all the inbetweeners.
In my view there are 2 reasons why you want to buy a bat, one is to use it to score runs with and the other is to have it on display and to imagine how many runs you would score with it.
As most of the people on this forum are not pro's and will play around about 20 to 25 games a year why are we so fussy about these bats?
My experience is that if I practice really hard I will score runs and if I don't practice I may score runs, but mainly it just depends on whether I have a chance to play myself in or if I get a decent one/play a bad shot early, not what bat I am using – which has been anywhere from 2lbs 8 to 2lbs 13.
So my question is - in most cases we buy a bat we like the look of and use that as it give us confidence. But I have found that sometimes you will score more runs with a bat that you aren't sure about, but happens to suit your game better which, in my view, is the point of a custom made bat.
Which all eventually brings me to my point and questions - if you are ordering a custom made bat you, surely should say I play with this style and like these shots and the bat I have scored the most runs with is about 2lbs X please can you make me a bat that will suit that - here are some pics of my old bat - you can see the middle is here... rather than I want a bat with 15 grains, 40mm edges, 70 mm spine height, a slight bow and a phat toe that picks up like a 2lbs 2 bat.
We should then choose a bat maker who can make a bat to suit the way we play – we do need to trust that the bat maker will do that (and not just send you something in stock, unless it is perfect for you) – but that is why we choose a custom bat maker.
Personally, I think GM’s bat selector is the right thing to back up my argument – but how many people would choose the bat shape the selector comes up with over the one with the branding they prefer?
My view is that rather than being comically picky about the shape and edge size and all that – which people seem to be, for example moaning about the edge size on a Laver (I mean seriously – it wont make a difference if you are sitting in the pavilion out for 5 after making a wild heave at the ball and getting bowled) – we should just let the experienced bat maker do his job.
Talisman has a story about the guy who made/makes Stac bats – he made a bat for him and it really suited his game, but it wasn’t a shape he would have chosen.
Finally and coming to the end of this rambling commentary – why can’t we put more faith into the bat makers to do their job – rather than just telling them how we want our bats and then blaiming the bat makers because they can’t find the middle.
Oh and why do some may people have so many bats
!!!
I feel a bit like Jerry Maguire...