Playing a man's game? Use a grownup bat.

• Position: What's New? - Rawlings Velo BBCOR Baseball Bat - Brief article

"It's a little boys game but you have to be a man to play it" is one of the truisms of baseball. Well, sort of. As kids get older, it certainly is true that they become more capable--now that they are bigger, stronger, and more experienced at the sport--of playing the grand old game correctly. Our boy has been working on his National Pastime skills since he was a five-year-old T-baller. Finally, last summer, at 13, he graduated to 90-foot basepaths and pitching rubbers 60 feet, six inches from home plate. At last--real baseball that isn't the comedy of errors and bases on balls we parents had to endure through the early years.

A righty-throwing, lefty-batting catcher and outfielder (I wish I had his arm when I played), he made the transition to the bigger field pretty effortlessly. Such tenacity (and skill development) deserves a...