Tee Ball and Coach’s Pitch Baseball Bat Shopping

I researched Tee Ball and Coach’s Pitch baseball bats a bit today. 

You can get a Tee Ball bat for under $30 but the “Coach’s pitch bats” or “Youth” bats sell for $80-$250.

There is probably not much difference in the performance of the Tee Ball bats so it is probably fine to just grab one from Target, Sports Authority, Dick’s or Wal-mart.

But as a comparison, you might consider the basic option for a 4-5 year old from Louisville Slugger: the Omaha Tee Ball bat. 

It comes nice and small:

24″ / 13 oz.
25″ / 14 oz.
26″ / 15 oz.

This is a called a -9 bat because it has 9 less ounces than inches.  In general, you want to use as light a bat as you can find.

But apparently Tee Ball bats are not really designed for hitting a pitched ball.  

A point of comparison then for the next size up is the Louisville Sluggers Omaha Coach’s Pitch bat for a 5-6 year old.

They are slightly bigger than the Tee Ball bats:

26″ / 16 oz.
27″ / 17 oz.
28″ / 18 oz.

 This is a called a -10 bat because it has 10 less ounces than inches.

Neither of these Louisville Slugger Omaha bats are composite bats but are rather aluminum ones.  A lot of composite bats have been outlawed this year by leagues because they hit farther and faster than aluminum ones (and have the accompanying dangers). 

I would like to get two bats for our three and five year olds to start using: the smallest Tee Ball bat (24″ / 13 oz.) and the smallest Coach’s Pitch bat (26″ / 16 oz.).  

P.S. Leagues have unique rules about which bats are allowed so it is smart to wait until you know those rules before purchasing.  For example, counterintuitively, our “Coach’s Pitch” league for 4-5 year olds only allows Tee Ball bats labeled as such and does not allow “Coach’s pitch” bats. 

See also my post:

MacGregor Batting Tee is sturdy for kids and college players

and my

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