No it’s just a normal bat. In all seriousness, it’s not that uncommon have a price range for kids to have a bat at this price. He’s definitely not the only one on his team who has it, one kid from his team last year had one that was more expensive. Some kids, the ones who are less serious about baseball, they don’t have more expensive equipment because it doesn’t matter to them as much. That’s OK too.
It’s really no different than any other equipment for any other sport. Even running shoes, You can buy a $25 pair of running shoes at target, or someone can buy a $150+ pair of running shoes from Nike or asics, etc. Both shoes to perform the same basic task, but one will be a lot better quality and a lot more comfortable.
I’m frustrated that it is still an expensive item and apparently not “pinging” the ball well, and T is not comfortable with the way it feels when contacts the ball. I don’t fully understand... the trainer said it’s due to the new rules set for baseball where they changed bat regulations (this is a ‘new’ regulation bat)... so let’s say I shell out that much money to replace the gift, and then it still doesn’t feel well to him. There’s no way to practice hitting prior to buying a bat... you would think there would be.
When I buy T’s soccer cleats we go to a soccer store that has a tunnel to kick a ball and juggle so you can feel the contact of foot and ball prior to buying. When I buy running shoes I go to a running store where I can run on the treadmill prior to purchasing.
I wish we had a baseball-specific store where I could get help and ask questions about the USA regulations, and have him do more than just quickly swing a bat. Dicks customer service people are not that helpful when it comes to anything more than answering “where are the x items at?”