DALLAS — Corey Seager's bat, a birch wood that was born in California but rose to prominence in Texas, died Monday night on a baseball field in New York City.
The perpetrator was an 83 mph slider on the inner-half of the plate. Seager hit it, but not very well. And the bat, which saw its fair share of blistering doubles and booming home runs, met its demise on a weak dribbler that took a slice of its barrel.
In the end, it died still doing what it loved. The dribbler went for a base hit.
OK, but seriously, we thought this day might never come.
Seager broke his bat in the sixth inning against the New York Mets, an entirely common occurrence in Major League Baseball. Except it hasn't been common for Seager in 2023 as he's powered his way to one of the best seasons of his career.
By most accounts, and our own photo-matching investigation, Seager had used the same bat for most, if not all, season, a rarity for wood bats, which crack and splinter all the time. The Bally Sports Southwest broadcast even noted this Monday night, in the first inning, as Seager came to the plate with his same well-worn bat.
In the last few weeks, it was clear the 34-inch, 32-ounce stick - which was produced by Trinity Bat Company in Orange County, California -- was showing its age. The handle was caked in pine tar and the barrel was scuffed from hit after hit. And perhaps most distinguishable of all was the white ring from the weighted donut Seager uses in the on-deck circle.
A couple weeks ago, we called up Steve McKee, who owns Trinity. McKee told us Seager likely hadn't used the same exact bat all season. But he said Seager does like to swing a bat until it's finished for good, and his birch bats tend to last longer than most.
"His comments to my rep was that every bat we give him is a gamer," McKee told us earlier this month. "He doesn't give any of our bats away. His bats last, too."
After his ol' reliable met its untimely demise Monday night, Seager came to the plate in the eighth inning with a fresh black Trinity. McKee said his company sent Seager 18 bats before the season, and they've been working on an order of six more.
The new gamer Seager put into play Monday night had a few scuffs, so it wasn't perfectly fresh. But it looked almost shiny compared to the old bat.
Seager fouled off the first two pitches from Brooks Raley, and then rocketed a double to the rightfield corner. Seager came around to score on Robbie Grossman's groundout, cutting New York's lead to 3-2. The Rangers then took the lead in the 9th and managed to hold it for a 4-3 win.
The new bat got things going, so the old bat didn't die in vain.
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