Tidbits - Mystery Bats in 1922
On July 25, the Giants welcomed the Cardinals to the Polo Grounds for a four-game series, with the two teams separated by ˝ game. The Giants swept the series, scoring 39 runs on 63 hits.
The latest squawk from the St. Louis fans is that the Giants are so determined to clinch the pennant in their league that they have pressed into service a “trick” bat which is reported by some rabid rooters to have a strange power to knock the ball a dozen city blocks, if properly used. The mysterious bat is alleged to be constructed of the porous wood of the breadfruit tree, a South American product.
Rumor hath that early last spring the villainy of the Giants management stooped so low as to send a special missionary into the jungles of South America to buy all the breadwood trees in captivity. This the representative of the team succeeded in doing only after he was compelled to slip the ignorant natives a couple of bags of beads or their equivalent.
When the dirty deed was accomplished he sent hurrying home large quantities of the fibrous trunks of the trees, which after being properly treated and converted into baseball bats developed a remarkable attraction for baseball and connect with them at every opportunity.
It was just these bats, according to some of the fans in St. Louis, that made it possible for the Giants to hammer out a half hundred hits in three games last week.
Isn’t science wonderful?
Philadelphia Inquirer, July 31, 1922