You be right.
From a woodworker:
Newer bats are made with renewable wood from sustainable trees. Old trees, a.k.a ‘old growth’, are just that: Older. When it comes to lumber, with age comes hardness and strength.
The best bats, strong/hard, are cut from old-growth lumber. Since we need more sustainable products, the woods in newer bats are just not as hard and strong because we aren’t cutting down century old trees for them.
I concur. So does the Louisville Slugger website. See the box with the gray background that explains how to hold the bat and where to hit the ball.
This thread has descended into IMHO territory. I just point out that if you want the bat to flex, hold it so that it hits the label (or the opposite side), but if you want it to remain rigid, you want the label up. Obviously, it is likelier to break if you hit on the label, but that was not the question. It would not surprise me if you get longer distance hitting on the label.
When I was a kid, broken bats in the major leagues were a rarity. It is said that Ty Cobb once used a bat for an entire season. Now it is common to see several break during one game. I always assumed that it was because they made the neck so narrow, but maybe they are also holding it differently.
Hickory bats were the norm in those days, much tougher wood but much heavier.
What makes all of this irrelevant? Bamboo.
My first purchase of a softball bat was Maple. As with baseball, Ash is preferred, but it’s pretty hard to come by these days. My next purchase was Bamboo. It’s constructed using 1/8" x 1/8" square (approx) lengths of bamboo. They are pressed/glued together much like a cutting board. At this point I believe the “block” is inserted into a lathe to form it as desired. I use both and if there is a difference in “pop,” it’s not discernible.
I don’t know if Bamboo is appropriate/available for baseball.
It does go on to say, however,
NOTE: No laminated or experimental bats shall be used in a professional game (either championship season or exhibition games) until the manufacturer has secured approval from the Rules Committee of his design and methods of manufacture.
so a laminated bamboo bat could be used if approved.
I have been watching the way the major league hitters hold their bats. Most people assume they will hit on the end grain with the trademark up. The TV coverage does not always show it clearly, but it looks like the players mostly hit the ball on the trademark. They are deliberately striking the ball on the flat grain rather than the end grain.
Striking the ball on the flat grain will cause the bat to flex far more since the wood is much weaker under bending moment loading in that orientation. I think this might also result in more hits and less shock on the hands. But the bats break frequently when the ball is hit too far from the sweet spot.
As a kid we were told to keep the label on the back of the bat. Observation showed that this left the most exposed area of flat grain that could break off a chip. But the opposite side was not much different. Keeping the label on the bottom or the top (where it can be seen too) makes mores sense, and should lead to a stiffer bat when contacting the ball there.
As kids we weren’t hitting 90+mph fastballs either. The greatest chance of breaking a bat came from hitting rocks, trees, or our brothers with the bat.
Side note: for non-wood bats, H&B says to “Rotate the bat 1/4 turn each swing.”
http://www.slugger.com/tips/batcare.html
I played high school ball in the late 70’s so as a little kid I played with wood bats and changed to aluminum about my teenage years. We always kept the label up for both kind of bats, but maybe for aluminum this caused deterioration by always hitting on the same side.
Hold a bat in front of you with the label up using the same grip you use when swinging the bat. Now swing the bat and observe that the label is horizontal and away from the pitcher. Adjust your grip and hold the label up before the swing so that you hit on the side away from the label when you swing.
You could look at it this way. Picture a stack of slats with the edges facing up. these slats are the grain of the wood. The stack can be bent left or right with ease. bend the slats and the bat breaks.
If you rotate the stack 90 degrees with the flat sides up and try to bend it left or right. It can possibly be done but with much more effort than the earlier example. Bats are made so that the edges are where the impact is. Much more tensile strength.
It can be easily seen if you look at a wooden bat. It very much resembles a stack of slats when the label is held in a horizontal position IE facing the pitcher.
Demarini bats are actually equipped with numbers ringing the end of the bat, allowing you to remember to turn the bat. If you hit with 1 facing you last time, turn it to 2 this time, 3 the next, and so on.
Even I learned about holding the trademark up, and I was not much of a ballplayer.