What Credit Crunch? A Kid's Baseball Bat Hits Major League Prices

Posted by: Lauren Young on November 07

This entry is written by BusinessWeek contributing editor Mark Hyman who is the author of Until It Hurts (Beacon), a book about impact of parents, coaches and other adults on youth sports to be published in April 2009.

I think I was a witness to history this week, and, no, I’m not referring to the political ground broken by President-Elect Obama

I’m speaking about a child’s baseball bat. Specifically, the price of kids’ bats these days. The sports-gear catalogs that will clog mailboxes at the height of the Christmas shopping season have started to trickle in. I received one a few days ago and was mindlessly flipping pages when I came across something that, if it isn’t an all-time record, should be: A kids’ bat selling for $250.

Of course, it’s not any youth baseball bat. It’s an Easton “Stealth” chock full of indispensable features including “massive hitting area,” “max energy transfer” and “ultimate vibration reduction.” Other references in the catalog – to a “patented ConneXion Design System” and “CNX technology” – are totally over my head, though I do have a sense that the science involved is as advanced as anything you’d find on the International Space Station.

The bat looks sharp, too, shocking blue with the word “Stealth” boldly stamped lengthwise up the barrel. A Google search reveals similarly priced bats from a few other manufacturers including the DeMarini WTDXCFL CF3 (pictured above). It carries a retail price of $437.50—is it uranium-powered?—though at few Internet sites it also sells for $250.

There are reasons for spending lavishly on sports equipment for children. Your kid is totally devoted to the game. You just hit the lottery. You’re rendered senseless by a brilliant marketing campaign. But it’s rarely necessary.

Go into a well-stocked sporting goods store and you’ll find perfectly fine baseball bats selling for $30 or $40. They swing about like the more expensive models and your child will have grown out of both in a year or two anyway. But who am I to give advice?

When my kids were young, I was a serial splurger on expensive sports equipment. Not only gear, but camps, private lessons and other youth sports luxuries. It wasn’t rational, but if parting with a few extra dollars meant that my son might raise his batting average a couple of points, I usually jumped at the chance.

I think that explains why some kids’ baseball bats cost $250.

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