Is there anything better than waking up in the morning, hopping in a nice warm shower, getting all cleaned up for the day, and then heading to the kitchen for a bite? But what should one eat as the punctuation to such a beautiful morning routine? Some cereal? No, too boring. Fruit? Not sweet enough. Salad? What are you, crazy? Doughnut? Now you’re talking. Ah, yes, the doughnut, a favorite of stereotypical police officers everywhere and even a staple of the prehistoric world, so much so that archeologists have found fossilized bits of food that resemble doughnuts at Native American sites. And while we could wax poetic for hours about the cornerstone of every nutritious breakfast, alas this is an article about baseball.
So where does the doughnut fit into baseball? Well, that’s simple, it fits on a bat. And that is why D Is for Doughnut.
D Is for Doughnut
Before you get ahead of yourself and try jamming glazed fried dough on your version of Wonderboy (if you don’t understand the reference please read The Natural by Bernard Malamud or at least see the movie) we’re not talking about that kind of doughnut. What we are talking about is a weight that you put on your bat. The weight is shaped like a doughnut, but that is the only similarity between the two. The idea behind the weight is that it is used when a batter is in the on-deck circle warming up.
Origins of a Not So Tasty Treat
Before the doughnut was introduced to baseball, players used to grab multiple bats when they were in the on-deck circle. And while this tends to look cool, or at least make the player appear as if they have superhuman strength, it is rather trying on the hands. But until a New Jersey construction worker named Frank Hamilton had the brilliant idea of inventing a bat weight shaped like a doughnut this hand-stressing activity was common practice.
The year was 1967 and Hamilton thought that swinging multiple bats was a ridiculous ritual. So he did something about it. But, he needed a way to get it noticed by the rest of the baseball world. In stepped Elston Howard a neighbor of Hamilton’s and also the first black player on the New York Yankees. Hamilton stopped by Howard’s place and convinced him to endorse the weight and the doughnut became known as Elston Howard’s On-Deck Bat Weight. Howard’s endorsement was enough to light the fuse. Soon stars such as Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays were using the bat weight to limber up in the on-deck circle. And while most humans tend to think with their stomachs, the weight was soon called a doughnut for obvious reasons. The rest, as they say, is culinary history.
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