All American Pastime Thinks Green

Talk about making lemons into lemon-aide...deep in the Midwest a town called Wilmette in Illinois is making the best of an environmentally grumpy situation.

See in Wilmette, located about 20 minutes outside Chicago, there's a mass infestation of emerald ash borer killing the city's abundant ash trees. As of now, there's no real "cure" for the ash borer and once the tree is infested, the only solution is to reduce the trees to chips and trash it.  BUT what if the wood could be used for something...something wonderful?

"Last year, the ash borer was found in Wilmette, and when we first met with federal officials, the only thing that can be done is to bur and chip the ash trees. I said, 'That is unacceptable,'" recalled Chris Canning, Wilmette president. 

So Canning joined forces with a couple of local businesses and had an "everybody wins" solution.  The idea was to use the treated wood to make more than 100 Little League baseball bats dubbed the Wilmette Wonderboy, named after the legendary stick toted by Robert Redford's character in "The Natural."  Saved from the chipper, the lumber is sent to local bat craftsmen Bats By Buck, and simple, wonderful billets are crafted by sight, sanded, painted, and engraved. Good old fashioned wood bats that make that satisfying *crack* sound instead of a *ping*.

This spring, the Little Leaguers were presented with their very special bats and boy, do they love 'em.  One kid reminisced that his own departed ash tree used to have a tree swing in it, so he thought this was a pretty good afterlife.

"I think along with business, there's a community responsibility," said Tom Royce, owner of Bats By Buck. "There's a duty to try to help solve some problems if we can."

Yup - we agree.