April 16, 2025 – Torpedo bats have become the hot topic across Major League Baseball (MLB) — and rightly so — for being more tailored to hitters’ swing paths than the bats which fans are more accustomed to seeing.
But those aren’t the only bats that baseball fans in Middle Tennessee are excited about. Old Hickory Bat Company, established just before the turn of the millennium in 1999, has turned heads of fans and MLB players alike – thanks to both the quality of their bats and the personal relationships that their team has built with so many of the game’s top players.
Based in Goodlettsville — just 15 miles northeast of downtown Nashville — Old Hickory works with more than 10% of the league’s players,good enough for a top-five volume ranking among bat manufacturers for MLB players.The clientele ranges from the game’s top players — including Mike Trout, Kyle Tucker, Matt Olson and more — to rising rookies like the Marlins’ Kyle Stowers and the Yankees’ JC Escarra.
From youth to the pros and everywhere in between, Travis Copley — vice president of sales and marketing for Old Hickory Bat Company — estimates that a total of 40,000 Old Hickory bats are produced and distributed per year. And among those bats is a set that they designed and produced specifically for the Nashville Stars Baseball Club
Copley emphasized the value of Old Hickory’s close relationships with players, noting that the feedback helps them to refine the bats to each hitter’s preferences. The torpedo bats — bats with altered barrel dimensions — have risen to the forefront of many conversations around baseball, but Copley noted that Old Hickory wants to be sure that their players are aware of the “why” behind it all.
“There’s a little bit more to this than just changing the shape of your barrel,” Copley said. “There’s a reason behind the shape, and we explore those reasons for each player … depending on their analytical data and what their team is telling them and what they’re feeling at the plate.
“The easy way to think about it is, if you were to hand a baseball player at any level a bat and say, ‘With your finger, point out the sweet spot, where you’re trying to make contact,’ what the New York Yankees found was that they’d be about 3 to 4 inches too high up the bat towards the end of the bat,” Copley added. “So they started looking at that, realizing: ‘If we’re making the biggest part of the bat at the end where players have their perceived contact point, but the actual contact point is three inches below that, wouldn’t it make more sense to move that mass down to that point?’”
Recognizing the popularity of the new trend, Old Hickory has adopted a two-fold approach. They have designed a generic torpedo model that can be sent to players for testing and feel, in addition to models customized for individual players based on available swing data to ensure that the barrel is in the right spot.
Copley continued the message of the “right spot” when he acknowledged thatNashville checks every box as the optimal destination for Major League Baseball.
“I don’t think there’s any secret left that Nashville is the hot city, and the one thing that we are missing is a Major League Baseball team,” he said. “I think it would be a great fit here. From the sports landscape in Nashville, [Major League Baseball] seems to be the one big missing piece.”
Copley also emphasized the value of the Stars’ brand with the Negro Leagues and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. “I find that super intriguing, that [the Stars team] paused long enough to say, ‘What’s the history of baseball here in Nashville? What makes this unique?’ The fact that they were able to tie into the Negro Leagues and tie that into the present day,I think it’s been solid gold.”
Old Hickory Bat Company is already doing its part to enhance the message of the Stars, partnering with Music Industry Advisor Luke Combs and his Category 10 bar in downtown Nashville for the design of promotional bats featuring both the Stars’ and Category 10’s logos.
“We’re always open to that,” Copley added.
The Stars applaud the work of Old Hickory Bat Company in designing superior products and maintaining their relationships with many of Major League Baseball’s best players, and look forward to the day when Stars players are among those enjoying the quality and relationships integral to Old Hickory’s reputation.