The ash trees that grow in southeast Asia are under attack…by beetles. As a result, baseball bat manufactures will no longer be using this wood. One player is having a hard time letting go. I know baseball players tend to be a little weird, but this is flat out strange! One eyewitness to the Pedro Ceranno like actions shared this…

No more ash?” said Juan Uribe, a Chicago White Sox shortstop, whose batting coach says he speaks to his ash bats every day. Uribe is so finicky about his bats, teammates say, that he stores them separately in the team’s dugout and complains bitterly if anyone else touches them.

Later on:

After batting practice one morning, Podsednik’s teammate Uribe sheepishly confirmed his lectures to his bats (his beloved “Hoosier HB 23” models). “I tell them: ‘Do your job and if you don’t do your job, I’m going to have to go back to the Dominican Republic,’ ” Uribe said in Spanish. “Sometimes they listen; sometimes they don’t.”

It must not work because Mr. Uribe is currently hitting .232!