Baseball Bat History

In the very early days of Baseball,  bats were introduced in all shapes and sizes. In the 1850's baseball was an extremely young sport and batters made their own bats and experimented with bats of all varieties (long, short, flat, heavy). They quickly learned that bats with rounded barrels seemed to work the best. Because baseball bats of all shapes and sizes were being used, a rule was made in the year 1859 that baseball bats could be no larger than 2.5 inches in diameter, although they could be made of any length. Ten years later in 1869, another rule was added that stated the baseball bat could be no longer than forty two inches in length which incidently is the same maximum length allowed in baseball today. At this time there was no rule regarding the shape of the baseball bat. In fact, some players sometimes used baseball bats with flat surfaces when bunting.