Barry Bonds’ Dirty Little Secret in Carleton Place, ON

October 17, 2015  |  Michael Gauthier  |  Canada, Featured

It is generally accepted that Barry Bonds’ amazing home run power was fueled by steroids, but maybe there is a better answer in Carleton Place, a small town outside of Ottawa, Ontario, and home of the Sam Bat. Bonds is arguably the most famous professional ball player that has used a Sam Bat, but this small Carleton Place company is now supplying almost 200 pros with their weapons of choice. From meager beginnings in 1996 with a sample bat honed out of a maple stair banister, Sam Holman has revolutionized the bat industry. He had been challenged to find a “better” bat, and he proposed that maple would be much better than ash, which was softer and easier to break. Holman proceeded to prove his theory, and in 2015, over seventy five per cent of all major league bats are maple.

 

With the Toronto Blue Jays keeping Canadian baseball interests high well into the hockey season this year, Sam Bat hosted an Open House this past week. The company (actually the Original Maple Bat Corporation) occupies two buildings in an industrial park in Carleton Place, one housing the factory and the other holding administration, a showroom, a batting cage, a shop, and walls of photos and souvenirs. I had a guided tour of the factory, and saw stacks of raw, kiln dried, northern US maple. They are all carefully measured, weighed, and marked, so they can guarantee the hitters that they are getting exactly what they ordered. The bats are individually turned on a lathe, using one of 300+ different templates. They are then hand-sanded, hand-finished, and carefully inspected to meet exacting standards and demands. As the company proudly declares: “OUR MISSION IS TO CRAFT THE BEST BASEBALL BATS AVAILABLE ANYWHERE”.

 

If you are a baseball fan, then a stop at the Sam Bat factory is sure to be a hit. And if you are looking for the perfect gift for your favourite family player, talk to them about a custom Sam Bat. If the timing is right, you might even be able to score a factory tour and try out a couple of different bats in the batting cage.

Carleton Place is about half an hour west of Ottawa, and everything else you need to know is at sambat.com. Play Ball!

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