ASA approved this bat on 8/15/02. It will be out in the next couple of weeks. The Ultra II will be black, not gray like the original Ultra.

[Edited by Tap on Aug 17th, 2002 at 05:04 PM]

I'll admit that when I read about the new Miken fastpitch bat, I was impressed. However, I've seen several of the travel players use them, and they don't seem to perform any better than the Triple 7 that only costs $89 to $99 depending on where you buy them.
My daughter recently got a Dr. Dot TPS (gold in color) 34 in/22 and 1/2 oz. for $85 through Direct Sports and she loves it!
Why pay so much moola for a new on the market bat?

bats
 

Hey Elaine, welcome back. I was talking slow pitch. I have no idea what they use in fast pitch -- I think Miken's bat is called the Intensit-E. Ultimately it's mostly the hitter anyway, not the bat.

Over the past two weekends, I did 28 games in a large tournament. Miken Ultras abounded, and they cost a lot more than $99. The fence at the main field is 300 feet around and 10 feet high, and with the Ultras, anybody who plays slow pitch at higher than picnic level could hit a ball out. (They were using a 44 core Trump, I think.)

Balls also took odd flights out of the park. One line drive over shortstop went to the left, then to the right, then rose and shot over the fence. A line drive over the third baseman suddenly sank and appeared to travel straight down to hit about 25 feet behind him. The crowd was buzzing about that one. Those bats definitely do the hitting for the batter and rightly are banned.

Luckily, like many hot bats, they appear to die after a certain number of hits, so they won't be around much longer.