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The Bat weight, AKA "doughnut" was
created by the New York Yankees catcher
Elston Howard. A number of teams
invested in Howard's bat weight, to
essentially get players out of the
habit of swinging multiple bats to warm
up. Howard; who brought the idea to
Co-inventor, and New Jersey investors,
Frank G, Hamilton, and Vincent H
Salvucci, did not make the amount of
money that they had envisioned. Other
companies made their own versions of
the bat weight. Howard and his
supporters did not have the funds to
take the companies to court. The Elston
Howard's On-Deck Bat Weight was
patented in 1967, and approved in 1970.
The patent was for a training device in the form of a weight and adapted
to be used with a baseball bat, to
improve the batting ability of the
batter. The bat weight was to improve
muscular coordination and strength.
Listed uses include: Develops strong
wrists, forearms, loosens shoulders,
speeds up bat swing, giving the batter
more time to judge a pitch. The weight
fits over the bat being used in the
game, without damage, and can be
"removed by Simply stamping handle on
ground."
The hang card for box pictures Elston Howard using the weight, taking a
bat swing "in a horizontal motion" as
directed on the back. "Elston Howard's
On-Deck Bat Weight" model no.
06102 pictured above was recommended
"for ages 12 year or over" and "Slips
On Your Own Bat"
The model no. 06101, pictured below
with the red white & blue box, is for
little league players for ages up to 12
Years. It
was distributed by General Sportscraft
co. In 1972 the On-Deck Baseball
Starter set was marketed which included
an "Official On-Deck Youth League
Baseball," a Louisville Slugger little
League bat, and Elston Howard's On-Deck
Bat weight.
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