Composite baseball bat having swaged spar and plastic foam covering

A bat for baseball and the like comprising the combination of

• an integral hollow tubular aluminum spar extending nearly the entire length of the bat and an integral foam plastic body molded about the entire outer surface of said spar and conforming to and providing the exterior size and configuration of said bat, said spar and plastic body together providing a bat barrel portion, a bat handle portion, and a bat portion intermediate said barrel and handle portions,
• said foam plastic body having a density of between 25 pounds to 50 pounds per cubic foot, and having an integral outer skin,
• the thickness of said foam plastic body varying from its thickness in the bat barrel portion to a substantially lesser thickness in the bat handle portion,
• said foam plastic body further including integral molded ends at both the handle and barrel portions of the bat,
• said hollow tubular spar itself having an outer end spar portion, an inner end spar portion and an intermediate spar portion,
• said outer end spar portion being of a constant cross-section whose diameter is substantially one and one-half times as great as the outer diameter of the entire bat handle portion, the wall thickness of said constant section outer end spar portion being substantially less than the wall thickness of said inner end spar portion, said intermediate spar portion tapering in both diameter and thickness between those of said outer end spar portion and of said inner end spar portion,
• the said spar being formed, along said intermediate and inner end spar portions, by swaging a tube whose original diameter and wall thickness were those of said spar outer portion,
• whereby in conjunction with said swaged spar, the mass of the plastic body, so varying in thickness, affords desirable handling qualities without tip weighting.