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Louisville Slugger Swamped With Orders After Yankees’ Bat Goes Viral

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Kristie Ackert | Last updated Apr 1, 2025 7:00 AM ET

On Saturday, the world learned about the New York Yankees' new bats. By Sunday, opposing pitchers and fans complained about the innovative, torpedo-shaped bat.

By Monday morning, however, baseball fans in Jentucky were jammed up to a window watching a custom torpedo bat being made for Yankees centerfielder Cody Bellinger at the Louisville Slugger Museum, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal.

Bellinger had launched his first home run with one of these bats on Saturday, when the Yankees hammered nine homers and YES Network announcer Michael Kay pointed out the unique shape of the bats.

For the men behind Louisville Slugger, this isn’t new. They’ve seen hundreds of new bat designs over the decades.

They have never seen one take off like, well, a torpedo before.

While pitchers were fuming in the Milwaukee Brewers clubhouse about the Yankees using the bats against them, their manager praised the Bronx Bombers for being at the forefront. Their teammates, like Rhys Hoskins, were considering ordering some. By Sunday night, San Diego Padres slugger Manny Machado was putting out a call on national TV for the bats.

And that interest was reflected back in Louisville.

The company had been making the torpedo-shaped bats for Bellinger since last summer, when he was still with the Chicago Cubs. They’ve made them for his former Cubs teammate Nico Hoerner as well.

Now, they will be making them for more of their clients.

On Monday, Slugger reps Brian Hillerich and Kevin Uhrhan were in Cincinnati when they got a call: We need to see you. Now.

The company said that by Monday morning, they had 60 orders for the torpedo bats, but contractually, they could not reveal which teams or players.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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