I’m just playing baseball.” That the Yankees had a historically great game, and that some players were using funny-looking bats, “is more coincidence than destiny or science,” Smith told me. After all,

A new product on the market is helping Major League Baseball hitters, and it's completely legal. Several teams like the New York Yankees have used torpedo bats. The Yankees brought the bats into the spotlight when they clobbered the Milwaukee Brewers with a franchise-record nine-homer game on March 29.

The torpedo bat's rise has changed the industry for the companies that make them. Here is one bat-maker's story.