The Continuing Saga of the Record-Breaking Explosive Baseball Bat

Baseball, more than any other sport, has been rife with good ol’ fashioned American cheating. Since its very inception, it has been riddled with doping, bat corking, ball doctoring, and more. But there is no denying that people have hit baseballs incredible distances using unaltered regulation equipment. Joey Meyer, of the Denver Zephyrs, managed to hit a homerun a verified 582 feet in 1987. The average home run distance, however, is more like 400 feet. Most of us could never even hope to approach that, which is why Shane Wighton, of the Stuff Made Here YouTube channel, has been on a quest to construct an explosive baseball bat to beat the distance record.

Wighton started this journey a couple of months back, and we very thoughtfully brought the project to your attention then. His goal was simple: to hit a baseball further than anyone else in history — even if that required some serious cheating. The distance that a human can hit a baseball is the result of many factors, and strength is just one of them. Even weather conditions can have an effect, which is likely why Meyer was able to set that record in Denver’s Mile High Stadium where the air is thin. Wighton appears to be a fit enough guy, but there is no way he could even come close to that without a little help. That help came in the form of explosives. His first bat was made from wood and had trouble holding up to the stresses involved, which is why he took another swing at the project with a metal bat.

This new video highlights various iterations of the metal bat, all of which look like something straight out of a cheesy ‘80s sci-fi movie about a futuristic version of baseball. All of the bat’s power comes from small explosive charges that are normally used to drive nails into concrete. The original wood bat used two of these charges, but the new version has a total of four. Before seeing the bat in action, you’d assume that it was completely over-engineered. But even this incredibly robust level of construction failed numerous times under the explosive power of the baseball bat. Before it completely disintegrated, however, Wighton was able to hit at least one ball that likely exceeded the homerun distance record. Unfortunately, he was unable to find the baseball in order to verify the actual distance. With the insane level of effort that went into this project, we’re prepared to go ahead and give him the title of explosive-enhanced homerun distance record holder.