ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,251,608, issued on March 18, was assigned to RAWLINGS SPORTING GOODS COMPANY INC. (St. Louis).
"Ball bats with inner barrel structures" was invented by Frederic St-Laurent (Simi Valley, Calif.), Michael Haas (West Salem, Wis.), Ian Montgomery (Simi Valley, Calif.), Rebecca S. O'Hara (University City, Mo.), Linda Hunt (Simi Valley, Calif.) and Douglas Wade Heimer (Caledonia, Minn.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Representative embodiments of the present technology include a bat having a barrel shell and a frame structure. The barrel shell may include a barrel region of the bat and part of a tapered region of the bat. The frame structure m...