DANNCO, INC Athletic Outfitters

June was a pretty exciting month for sports. Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen win an NBA Championship in an updated Celtics-Lakers Finals matchup featuring the two revived franchises, Tiger Woods adds to his legacy in the US Open, coming from behind to tie the 18 hole playoff and winning the sudden death playoff for his 14th Major all with a torn ligament in his left knee. Iowan Shawn Johnson won the Olympic Trials. The month ended with a bang as Fresno State completed their cinderella run through college baseball, winning the College World Series over Georgia.

With the College World Series comes the new lineup of baseball bats from the major companies. Dannco is already carrying the new 2009 series bats from Easton and Louisville Slugger in our retail store and we will be adding them to the website over the coming days. One of those bats is the Easton Stealth IMX which was the bat that Steve Detwiler was swinging with to will his team to victory in the final game of the Series with two homeruns and all six RBI’s.

One of the rumblings around the Coaches’ Clinic in KC this past weekend was a discussion about the new Amateur Softball Association (ASA) rules in regards to composite bats. Dan wanted me to go over how the rules have changed and why you don’t have to worry about the changes.

Essentially, as I understand it, ASA has rules that govern the speed in which a ball can be hit on from a bat. Every bat with the ASA stamp on the bat out on the market meets or is below that standard. Some composite bats have been found to progressively get better the longer they are used, so that they initially pass the test and then come off the bat with more velocity after a few months of use. The ASA has decided that they will add bats that are broken in to their testing so that some bats will not be made again.

However, if you’re looking for a new bat and enjoy composites on the market right now, you still can buy them. The rules won’t change for manufacturers until June, and all the bats that they send out through June will be “grandfathered”, which means that any bat that they ship out before July 1 will be within the governing rules of ASA and you will be free to use them as long as you own them. As Gary from Fastpitch.us said – “At this time, there is no “cease use” date for players and no “cease sell” date for dealers on these models.”

We sell several of these bats on Dannco.com, the Synergy and Stealth are both bats that will give you plenty of power. We have a limited supply of both bats now, and will be receiving a shipment in March to make the bats widely available.