Quick Take
The Magic Eraser is the most effective tool for cleaning ball marks from baseball bats, offering quick and easy results for composite and aluminum models. While soap and water are a safe alternative, they often require more effort and may not remove tough scuffs.
We’ve seen more than 1,000 bats come and go. After heavy work with the bats, we usually ignore considerable ball marks and ball scuffs. But, now and again, we want to remove ball marks and clean the bat.
How do we clean our bats?
Two tricks we show below.
Over the years, we have found some tricks and tips to clean your bat.
- The best trick, far and away, is using the Magic Eraser. Made by Mr. Clean and relatively inexpensive, the little gadget cleans your bats quickly and is much more effective than soap, water, rags, and towels. But do note that a magic eraser is really just fantastic sandpaper. That is, if you do it too hard, it can remove more than just the ball mark. So, please don’t overdo it, or you’ll remove the paint/gloss too.
- The manufacturer suggests you use mild soap and water. This works well for most marks, and if you don’t want to spend a few dollars on the magic eraser, it is your next best bet.
Trick 1: Manufacturers’ Suggestions
Manufacturers are comfortable with mild soap and warm water applied with a softer rag on the bat. This approach is nice enough, no doubt, but usually not strong enough for serious ball marks. A stronger non-metal brush you’d use to get grease off a pan in the kitchen is also useful in some instances but requires serious effort and time. There is some risk of scratching the paint job if you are too aggressive.
In practice, however, none of those options work entirely for most serious ball marks.
Trick 2: Magic Eraser
There is really only one trick to cleaning ball marks off a bat. It is the Magic Eraser. There isn’t anything magic about this. Instead, it is made from a foam resembling very fine sandpaper. When wet, it works well on high-gloss finishes. However, do be aware that rubbing certain areas might leave microscopic scratches. We rarely rub in the same spot for over 10 or 15 seconds. The good news is we have yet to come to a spot that needs more than just a few seconds of rubbing.
At the risk of this sounding too much like an infomercial, you may find the bat-cleaning video we did helpful.
To make a long story short, the Magic Eraser is our go-to bat-cleaning trick. Soap and water do not cut it. And for less than $5, it can be used on a few hundred bats before it needs replacement.
Does a Clean Bat Matter?
The short answer is, obviously, no.
A clean bat shouldn’t hit a ball further than a dirty bat. Assuming, of course, we are not talking about being ‘caked in mud’ and dirty. It could even be argued scuff marks give it personality.
But ask Ichiro Suzuki if bat perfection means anything in the grand scheme. One of the better hitters in the game kept his bats in a humidifier and a massive carrying case. Players at the top level of the sport care a lot about their bats and take considerable care of them. Why not take care of our nearly $400 composite bats with a bit of cleaning once and again? It isn’t a crazy idea.
