Conservation 101: the Compete to Conserve Blog

photo credit: merfam

Tracing its origin as far back as 16th Century England, “Townball” was a game involving 20 to 30 boys in a field attempting to catch a ball hit by a “tosser”.  The tosser used a four-inch bat with a tapered handle.  The bat was designed to improve leverage and control for the tosser.  Although unconfirmed, baseball folklore believes this is the beginning of the baseball bat.

The baseball bat evolved during the 19th Century, but there were very few limitations imposed upon the instrument.  1884, however, marked the beginning of the wood baseball bat business when a woodworker and his father teamed up with a Louisville player who had just broken his favorite bat.  After providing the player, Pete Browning, with a custom baseball bat made of white ash, the Hillerich family’s baseball bat business began and the official Louisville Slugger was born.

Without dispute, baseball bats are big business.  Even with 100 years of evolution, wood baseball bats used today in Major League Baseball are similar to the ones used by Honus Wagner (the first player to autograph a Louisville Slugger for money).  Even metal and aluminum bats, first patented in 1924, never made a debut in MLB. (more…)

photo credit: Matt McGee

The life expectancy of a baseball is about six pitches. While most baseball games average between 250 and 300 pitches, Major League Baseball estimates between 60 and 72 baseballs can be used during a game (which would be considerably more than 300 pitches). That means during the regular season games, the 30 MLB teams can collectively go through somewhere between 111,000 and 175,000 baseballs.

I caught a foul ball once, although family superstition necessitated me to hand it over to someone nearby immediately. With enough time, I could probably calculate that foul ball’s place in comparison to the 150,000 or so other balls used that year. Instead, I prefer to focus on how that ball serves as a metaphor for the trend in our everyday consumption, and the focus of this Web site. (more…)