2 days Ago By Tom Beattie
Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy has revealed his misgivings in relation to the New York Yankees' groundbreaking new torpedo bats as he labelled their usage as "cheating". In front of a rapturous home crowd at Yankee Stadium, Paul Goldschmidt, Cody Bellinger and Aaron Judge set the tone with three back-to-back home runs against the Milwaukee Brewers on Saturday. Incredibly, they became the first trio to achieve this feat in the Bronx outfit's proud history.
Austin Wells, Anthony Volpe and Jazz Chisholm Jr. also got in on the act with homers of their own - as New York hit nine home runs in a record-breaking performance . The Yankees hit 20 runs in a 20-9 victory over the Brewers, before going on to defeat their rivals again the following day in a 12-3 win on home turf, as they hit four more homers in that rout.
However, controversy has ensued as the Yankees hit 15 homers across their first three games of the new campaign , with this the best return of any team since 2006. However, the team's new torpedo bats have proven controversial during the infancy of the season - with media tycoon Portnoy leading the charge against their usage. During the broadcast of the Yankees' historic victory over the Brewers on Saturday, commentator Michael Kay explained what separates these bats from those of yesteryear.
He said: "They moved a lot of the wood into the label so the harder part of the bat is going to strike the ball." However, media mogul Portnoy called out their use, during an 'emergency press conference' address on X. While wearing Boston Red Sox merch, he said: "Of course, the Yankees hired an MIT physicist to basically take wood from the other parts of the bat.
Like near the handle label and put it in the sweet spot to make the sweet spot bigger. "They did this because Anthony Volpe sucks and he kept getting jammed and sawed off and we're like, 'How do we make him not suck? Let's just make this bat called a torpedo bat. Where basically, you swing and you make contact on the handle, get sawed off, it's a homerun.
" He continued: "So I think the Yankees have hit like, I think, 13 home runs. Jazz Chisholm, or whatever that guy, he's got like 13 home runs. Aaron Judge is hitting home runs, he's saying he's not using the torpedo bats, he is, take a look.
" In a stern admission, Portnoy then accused the Yankees of essentially cheating after adopting the new torpedo bats. He asserted: "All of the teams are gonna use it,' Portnoy claimed. 'Should it be legal? No.
Is it cheating? Yeah, it is.' "If you get sawed off, or you hit the ball off the label, that means you're not getting your hands through enough and you stink. Just taking the bat and making the thing like a corked bat with this torpedo hump, so all you gotta do is make contact, it's a home run.
.. That just makes someone who stinks better.
' 'That's just some geek from MIT ruining 100 years of baseball or 200 years of baseball. So listen, if MLB wants to sit on their a-- and not outlaw this torpedo bat, then all the teams around going to do it and every game is gonna be 100-98, there's gonna be 3,000 home runs." The MLB's official regulation in relation to bats reads: "The bat shall be a smooth, round stick not more than 2.
61 inches in diameter at the thickest part and not more than 42 inches in length. The bat shall be one piece of solid wood.".
