Inbaseball, abat boy[a] orbat girl is an individual who carriesbaseball bats to the players on abaseball team. Duties of a batboy may also include handling and preparing players’ equipment and bringingbaseballs to theumpire during the game. During games, a batboy remains in or near a team'sdugout and the area aroundhome plate.
A bat boy should not be confused withball boys, who are stationed down thefoul lines to retrievefoul balls. As batboys are stationed on the field, albeit in foul territory, they can occasionally interfere with play; such events are governed by Rule 6.01(d), the main point of which is that if the interference is unintentional, any live ball remains alive and in play.[1]
Mascots and bat boys had both been part of baseball since the 1880s. Perhaps the most famous mascot/batboy wasEddie Bennett, who was supposedly hired as a mascot by theChicago White Sox at the urging ofHappy Felsch in 1919, a tale Eddie told often but no White Sox player ever corroborated. After the1919 World Series scandal, he was hired by theBrooklyn Dodgers in 1920. When the Dodgers lost the1920 World Series to theCleveland Indians, some suggested the four straight losses on the road were due to leaving Bennett behind. He then served for almost 12 years as mascot/batboy for theNew York Yankees.
Calvin Griffith served as a bat boy for theWashington Senators, which was owned by his uncleClark Griffith, including during theWorld Series of1924 and1925.[2][3] The younger Griffith became the principal owner of the franchise upon the death of the elder Griffith in 1955, and orchestrated the relocation of the franchise after the 1960 season; the team has competed as theMinnesota Twins since 1961.
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Bat boys typically wear the sameuniform design as their associated team. They will also usually wear abatting helmet to protect them from flying balls or bats.
During any given major league game, both the home and visiting team bat boys will be drawn from the city where the game is taking place (batboys typically do not travel on the road with their team, unless they are relatives of a player). Home bat boys often have regular jobs with a team, and thus may wear their first names on their uniforms; visiting teams, on the other hand, usually do not know who will be serving as their bat boys on the road, and thus will send uniforms of various sizes to accommodate bat boys of varying heights and weights.
A bat boy may be provided his own number, but will usually wear 00 or 'BB' in its place. If a bat boy uniform does not have a first name on it, it will usually have the term 'BAT BOY' or no name at all.
Examples of bat boys who went on to play in the major leagues includeDrew Storen, who served as a bat boy for theMontreal Expos when the team visited Cincinnati,[8] andJesse Litsch, who was a bat boy for theTampa Bay Devil Rays in 2001 and 2002.[9] The aforementioned Darren Baker made his MLB debut in 2024, with theWashington Nationals.[10]
The bat boy, Bobby Savoy, is a supporting character in the 1984 film,The Natural. At the finale, Bobby gives the main character,Roy Hobbs, a bat that he's made with Hobbs' help after Hobbs has broken his own personally made childhood bat.
TwoWarner Brotherscartoons,Porky's Baseball Broadcast andBaseball Bugs, featuresight-gags involving bat boys who fly in onbat wings to deliverbats.
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