Hometown Home Run: El Paso native crafts “torpedo” baseball bats for players of all ages

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — As Major League Baseball’s 2025 season winds down, a new piece of equipment has been making waves at ballparks across the country: the torpedo bat.

Designed to shift the bat’s sweet spot closer to a player’s hands, the torpedo bat has caught the attention of both professional players and youth leagues.

Statistics from MLB.com and StatMuse show that 20 players who tried the bat this season hit a combined .257 batting average — 11 points higher than the league average of .246 with traditional bats.

While MLB does not officially track bat usage, the numbers suggest the design could provide a slight advantage at the plate.

One El Paso native has been making torpedo bats for ballplayers of all ages, from youth teams to the major leagues.

Kurt Gross is the Pro Production Manager for Overfly Sports and runs the comapny's El Paso facility.

Gross has been hand-crafting bats in his downtown shop for seven years. He said his business fabricates about 25,000 bats annually, shipping them worldwide to players from Mexico to Japan.

“We’ve seen an uptick in growth completely related to the torpedo bat craze,” he said. “It’s brought attention to bat customization, and honestly, that’s what we do best.”

Gross walked ABC-7 through the detailed bat-making process, from shaping billets of wood to applying multiple coats of stain and lacquer.

While the shaping takes minutes, finishing touches can take days before the bat is ready for shipment.

Though youth players make up most of the demand, some professionals have tested the design.

El Paso Chihuahuas broadcaster Tim Hagerty said players told him they experimented with torpedo bats during practice this year, though none used them in games.

“In baseball, like so many things in 2025, we’re looking at things scientifically with analytics,” Hagerty said. “I think bats are an example of that.”

As baseball continues to embrace new technology, Gross said he takes pride in knowing his work from the Borderland has reached players at all levels of the game.

“The superstars are great, but I’ve also made lifelong friends with coaches and executives,” he said. “That’s really what makes this so special.”

Fans interested in ordering handcrafted bats — including the torpedo model — can visit overflysports.com, where they can also customize their own bat’s size, weight, wood type and color.