It takes something big to be called “viral” in the baseball world. This time it’s not stolen signs, pitch clocks, or anything else. It is rather a bat! The Yankees torpedo bat, which is a bowling pin-shaped piece of lumber, has sparked huge debate across the league.

It all became the rage when the Yankees went on a run rampage with it. They had blasted nine home runs in a single game. They were just one shy of forming an all-time record. Everyone from Cody Bellinger, Jazz Chisholm, Paul Goldschmidt, Anthony Volpe, and Austin Wells used it. And this raised eyebrows.

Everyone wondered if the Yankees found a loophole. Are they getting an unfair advantage? Well, naturally, even the rest of the league decided to give it a go. But impressed? Not everyone is impressed, not Alex Bregman at least.

The new Boston Red Sox star also took the bat to the test in Baltimore. And while some players are really raving about the bat, he was pretty level-headed about it. “I don’t really think it’s the bat. It’s not like anybody using it (is going to hit homers). It’s the guy,”  Bregman told The Boston Globe. And it’s something that echoes what Aaron Judge had told.

So unlike Aaron Judge’s other New York Yankees teammates who have used the bats, Judge, meanwhile, isn’t into the bats. “Why try to change something if you’ve got something that’s working? Why add a new factor?” And he is not wrong. The New York Yankee captain is doing pretty good without the torpedo bats. He has already hit four home runs this season without a torpedo bat. So, he doesn’t need to change. And even Mookie Betts from the Los Angeles Dodgers said the same.

Max Muncy, too, who had called for the bats, was not sold on the result he got with the bat. So maybe it is true what Bregman is saying—it’s not the bat—it’s the guy.

Max Muncy ditches Yankees torpedo bat

If Max Muncy needed a sign from baseball gods, they sent a pretty loud one—stick to what you know best. The Los Angeles Dodgers third baseman in Wednesday’s game against the Atlanta Braves was cold. The Dodgers had a good start, no doubt, but Muncy simply fell flat. And the thing that was new with him was his bat. On Monday, Muncy had told reporters that he was intrigued after looking at the Yankees using them. So he had placed an order for it. But well, things didn’t really turn out his way as he used it.

At first, Max Muncy made a throwing error in the first inning. That then led to two unearned runs. Then another mistake in the second let Atlanta tack on three more. Plus, he also went hitless in his first three at-bats and struck out once. The result was a game-tying two-out double off Braves Raisel Iglesias. Now after the game, Muncy said, “Starting with that bat, it felt good; the swing felt good, but after the Dylan Lee at-bat, I felt like the bat was causing me to be a little bit off-putting, a little bit in and out of the zone because my swings felt really, really good tonight, but maybe just a bit off. It was the last at-bat; I just decided to go back to my regular at-bat. Fortunately, I did not throw it.” 

Clearly, it seems like it’s not the bat after all. They say if it’s too good to be true—it probably is. But for the Dodgers, the game didn’t get over then. One inning later, Shohei Ohtani crushed a walk-off homer. The Dodgers are now 8-0, the longest undefeated streak by a defending world champion in the sport’s history.

Muncy’s experiment might have failed, but it proved—it’s always about the hitter. Don’t you think?