Spotlight - DeMarini

Spotlight
Softball Today • APRIL 2006
22
more performance for a lot of those companies. What
we knew at the time and some of our competitors
latter learned is that the number of walls used in
muti-wall design is only part of the equation. How
each wall functions in accordance with the
others is the key to having a great multiwalled bat design.”
“In the case of the
2007 Juice
By Michael Cisneros
m o d e l
we've
“Juice” can be defined
taken a
as power, vitality or clout.
four
wall
At DeMarini, it is all
approach.
those things and more in a
We worked
34-inch package. Juice is
from the inside (innermost
DeMarini's newest slow pitch
wall) out, but in the end we
bat, a BPF 1.20 offering unlike
had to pay close attention to
anything ever made by any bat
each individual wall and
manufacturer - including DeMarini.
it's over all role in the
“This is a very different bat for
total bat design”.
us,” said Jerry Garnett, Marketing
“After we nailed
Manager for DeMarini.
down
our
barrel
That's putting it mildly.
configuration we then
The Juice is so different that it
concentrated our effort
uses
a
heretofore
unknown
on tuning the barrel
technology - “Stacked Design” - to
and
handle of the Juice
create a barrel that is both 100%
so that this design
composite and multi-walled, in this
would provide superior
case to the tune of four distinct walls.
performance
& feel
Add to that a completely new Half &
regardless of the ball
Half technology handle and the largest
compression. It's not
effective hitting area in company
just taking a barrel and
history, and this bat is the Juice.
making adjustments; it
“DeMarini has always been at the
is taking each individual
forefront of muti-wall bat designs”,
component of the bat
said Garnett. “After we introduced the
and making sure that
industries first Doublewall (multithey all compliment
walled) bat back in 1993, we had a
each other.
This
real good idea that our approach to
philosophy
is
really
bat designing would re-define how
what DeMarini Half &
bats were made. What we quickly
Half technology is
began to see was other companies
all about”.
utilizing three or more walls to try
When asked what
and get more performance out of
Larry Carter swings the
kind of bat the Juice
their bat designs. But it's not as
is, Garnett put it
easy as some might have thought new DeMarini Juice as
part of the WSL Long Haul Bombers
bluntly
- Juice has
and more walls did not result in
Stadium Tour.
the “maximum performance allowed.” Which means
it cannot be used in the ASA, but is accepted in
USSSA, NSA, ISA, Senior Softball and ISF. It pushes
right up against the Bat Performance Factor limit of
1.20. And it redefines the term “sweet spot.”
In creating this bat, Garnett says the plan was to
make the hottest bat possible. They did and it was
hotter than anyone in the company had even
imagined. Then the work was to take that pinnacle
and begin to dial it back down to where it met the
BPF 1.20 standard.
“People really expect that from us; that when we
do something, we do it at a very high level,” said
Garnett. “It's taken a couple of years, but we wanted
to have a bat that would really reestablish us as the
premier slow-pitch bat manufacture. We wanted to
come out with something that had a real WOW factor.
The Juice has undergone a tremendous amount of
player testing, and it's per those players that we now
have a bat that will definitely turn a lot of heads at
the ball field.”
But how is that possible, if all bats have the
same ceiling on performance put over them?
“With the Stacked Design, we are able to truly
push the performance linearly on this barrel,”
explained Garnett. “A lot of people can't believe the what they have come to refer to as - sweet spot on
this bat. Center of Percussion (sweet spot) is talked
about by a lot of bat manufacturers, but what is
talked about and what present when players actual
hit the bat isn't always the same. You can tell a great
story to compliment the performance of a bat that
truly performs, but don't try to give ball players the
old song and dance or you'll get torched in the court
of popular opinions. We still play this game and we
are on the field all of the time. We know what players
want and that is what we are going to give them. We
are going to be extremely scrutinized as we
reconnect with the soft-ball community, so this
model needed to be right.”
The Juice has a new handle design - “there will
always be a difference in the handle when compared
to previous (Half & Half) models; anytime there is a
change in the barrel you need a change in the
handle,” said Garnett. The new end cap is integral in
tuning the four walls. The barrel is a little heavy due
Continued on page 34
Softball Today • APRIL 2006
By Neil K. Warner
34
SACRAMENTO - If any of the teams in the 7th
annual USSSA Early Bird C NIT should have needed
a few games to warm up, it would have been CTown, the team from Boise, Idaho.
Without getting too technical about weather
patterns and geography, winters in
Boise are, ah, let's just say not playable. You won't
see anyone taking infield in January.
So could anyone explain a how C-Town, from
Boise remember, could cruise to a win in the Early
Bird NIT by posting a 5-0 tournament record and
score an average of
24.6 runs per game?
“We were able to hit indoors in some batting
cages, but that's not the same. We had only been
able to hit outside once, said first basemen Chris
Hoshaw. “We kind of made a last minute decision
to play in this tournament. We were just hoping to
win a few games.”
Apparently C-Town doesn't need much time to
warm up because it opened the tournament with a
convincing 26-18 win over NWP-ITS.
Then came the team's lowest scoring game of
the tournament, a 19-12 win over Team Gold, in
nine innings. The two teams were deadlocked at 12
after seven innings. Neither team scored in the
eighth, but C-Town put up a seven spot in the top of
the ninth to hold on for the win.
The run continued with a 20-15 win over
Bully's, followed by a 25-10 win over Yard Sharks
to become the tournament's only undefeated
team. C-Town waited for Bully's to beat Team
Gold, 24-19, and then beat Yard Sharks, 26-11, to
earn a date with C-Town.
In the finals, C-Town officially hit its stride and
scored a tournament-high 33 runs to beat Bully's 3314 in five innings.
“We were pretty excited because from
everything I've heard and read about, USSSA Nor Cal
is sort of the measuring stick for the West,” Hoshaw
said. “For us to come out and win the first
tournament and secure a world berth in March, we
felt pretty good about that.”
Tim Pemderton moved from third base to pitcher
and was named tournament MVP. He batted .740 for
the tournament.
Other members of the All-Tournament team were
Ryan Barabe, who hit .792; Travis Vezina (.762); and
Dane Alndt and Sack Deboi.
USSSA Early Bird
C NIT
1. C-Town Softball Club
5-0
2. Bully's
5-2
3. Yard Sharks
3-2
4. Team Gold
4-2
5. Maks/Easton/dssbats
3-2
6. Premier
2-2
7. Ripstik/A.P.S.
3-2
8. Sacramento Banshees
2-3
9. B2B
2-2
10. Delta Lending Group/l'infanzia 1-2
11. Team Alpha Male
1-2
12. SMD
1-2
13. Bingers
1-2
14. NWP-ITS
0-2
15. Outkast
0-3
16. Bucks Softball Club
0-3
to all those walls; it's not real
end loaded but it has more
barrel weight than other
composite bats.
“You are starting to see a
trend to heavier barrels,”
said Garnett.
End loaded bats were
always preferred by power
hitters in the early years of the
aluminum bat era of softball,
but high compression balls,
high strength aluminum and
composite
technology
eliminated the need - at least
from
a
performance
standpoint - of a heavy barrel.
But players never forgot the
comfort of the end weighting
and now with changes in ball
technology, even composites
are becoming available with
heavier barrels.
“We see a lot of lower
compression balls being used
regardless of the association.
It is not uncommon at all for
league or tournament directors
to use a ball that is lower in
compression than what their
rule book allows” said Garnett.
“We as bat designers look at
that trend and understand that
as the ball compression goes
down the desire to have a
heavier (more end loaded) bat
will go up. There is no better
way to get more performance
out of a softer ball than with a
heavier barrel.”
The Juice is designed for
D, C and B players, but, points
out Garnett, that doesn't mean
it shouldn't be used by E or A
players. It is all about comfort
& confidence. “That is really
the key,” he said. “There is no
one bat for everybody. But I
believe we will appease the
masses with this design,
we've accomplished what we
set out to do”
The Juice is available in
26, 28 and 30 ounces, though
it swings a bit heavier than
that. It will be available in
quantity in May.