By Eddie Castro
The 2025 baseball season kicked off last Thursday as we went to press and the New York Yankees made sure to leave their mark against the Milwaukee Brewers in their home-opening series. The offense, led by team Captain Aaron Judge, just obliterated the Brewers’ pitching. In the three games, the Yankees scored 36 runs, which included 15 home runs, 4 of which were hit by Judge. It was an outstanding performance that propelled the Yanks to their first series sweep of the season. However, instead of the team’s dominance being discussed, as well as all the highlights that happened around the league, the talk around baseball has been about the use of the new Torpedo bats.
The conversation began to become quite the trend during the teams’ 20-9 victory Saturday afternoon. During the telecast, Yankees broadcaster Michael Kay revealed that the Yankees decided to experiment with the new bats after a study from the team’s analytics department of shortstop Anthony Volpe. The study discovered that every single ball he hit seemed like he hit right on the label as opposed to the barrel of the bat.
Just to confirm to the Our Time Press universe, Major League Baseball has seven stipulations in its official rule book. The shape of the Torpedo bat does not appear to violate any ruling. The rules require bats to be made of one piece of solid wood. It must have a smooth round stick not more than 2.61 inches in diameter and not more than 42 inches in length. It is also important to know that no team can have any sort of experiment with any bats until the manufacturer has solicited approval from Major League Baseball. In a nutshell, these bats are indeed LEGAL! This does not in any way mean the Yankees will hit nine home runs in a game five more times this season and win all 162 games played this year. It is also important to know that a handful of other teams are using the same type of bat.
Whether these bats continue to be helpful for the Yankees moving forward remains uncertain. The season is a long one, and just like the elevator in my mom’s building, there will be ups and downs. Despite the Yankees losing Juan Soto to the Mets, when healthy, this offense has the talent and capability of performing well enough to have exciting signature highlight moments.
Milwaukee, on paper, is a good team and should be in the mix of their respective division title come September. Aside from the torpedo bats, is it a case where the Yankees just played extremely well with good weather, or is it a roster showing signs of hunger and motivation after coming up short of a World Series title last year? We shall see. Get your popcorn ready, health permitting; this Yankee team can be really, really good.
Sports notes: (Baseball) The Yankees will wrap up their three-game set tonight against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The team will finally hit the road to begin a three-time set against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday afternoon. The Mets will welcome the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday for their home opener. (Basketball) The New York Knicks will head to Atlanta on Saturday to battle the Hawks. The Nets welcome Anthony Edwards to the Barclay’s Center as the team battles the Minnesota Timberwolves tonight.