Manfred: Torpedo bats 'absolutely good for baseball'

Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred has no problem with torpedo bats, calling the innovation "absolutely good for baseball."

"I believe that issues like the torpedo bat and the debate around it demonstrate the fact that baseball still occupies a unique place in our culture because people get into a complete frenzy over something that's really nothing at the end of the day," Manfred told Michael S. Schmidt of The New York Times. "The bats comply with the rules."

Manfred's comments come as the torpedo-bat discussion took baseball by storm after a nine home-run outburst from the New York Yankees against the Milwaukee Brewers on March 29. A number of the Yankees players used a torpedo bat to hit homers during the contest, which immediately caught the attention of people who questioned the legality of the hitting tool.

Manfred was unfazed by the discussion and noted torpedo bats have been in use for years after it was developed by a former Yankees employee who now works for the Miami Marlins.

"Players have actually been moving the sweet spot around in bats for years," Manfred explained. "But it just demonstrates that something about the game is more important than is captured by television ratings or revenue or any of those things, when you have the discussions and debates about it."