2009 Louisville Slugger FP85Z TPS (-12) Zephyr Fastpitch Bat

The Zephyr is a composite bat with a -12 weight/length difference featuring a bottle bat design and proves to be a top performing light weight bat.

Designed for fastpitch softball players, the Louisville Slugger FP85Z Zephyr bat is built for durability and performance. From the earliest days of the game, Louisville Slugger has employed the most powerful technology in the bat business. Back in the days of Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth, that meant putting the most skilled craftsmen at the lathe, where they handcrafted bats to the most demanding specifications of the world's most demanding players. Today, it means applying the latest aerospace technology to bat making, delivering high-tech aluminum, hybrid, and composite bats for youth, high school, college, and senior leagues.

The bottle-bat-shaped FP85Z bat is made of 7C composite, a combination of graphite and fiberglass that allows for a longer barrel, a larger sweet spot, and a more solid feel than aluminum allows. The material is strong and tough, with the type of performance, feel, and sound that top players demand. Other features include a Louisville Slugger end cap, a standard handle with a synthetic grip, and a -12 oz. weight ratio without the grip. Available in lengths ranging from 28 to 34 inches (with weights from 16 to 22 ounces), the FP85Z carries a one-year warranty.

About Louisville Slugger
In many ways, the rich 120-year history of the Louisville Slugger baseball bat began in the talented hands of 17-year-old John A. "Bud" Hillerich. Bud's father, J.F. Hillerich, owned a woodworking shop in Louisville in the 1880s when Bud began working for him. Legend has it that Bud slipped away from work one afternoon in 1884 to watch the Louisville Eclipse, the town's major league team. After Pete Browning--the Eclipse's star who was mired in a hitting slump--broke his bat, Bud invited him to his father's shop to make a new one. With Browning at his side giving advice, Bud handcrafted a new bat from a long slab of wood. Browning got three hits using the bat the next day. Browning told his teammates, which began a surge of professional ballplayers visiting the Hillerich shop.

Although J.F. Hillerich had little interest in making bats, Bud persisted, eventually registering the name Louisville Slugger with the U.S. patent office in 1894. In the early 1900s, the company was one of the first to use a sports endorsement as a marketing strategy, paying Hall of Famer Honus Wagner to use his name on a bat. By 1923, Louisville Slugger was the selling more bats than any other bat maker in the country, with such famed clients as Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, and Lou Gehrig. In the ensuing years, the company has sold more than 100 million bats, and 60 percent of all Major League players currently use Louisville Sluggers. The company now sells far more than bats, including fielding and batting gloves, helmets, catchers' gear, equipment bags, training aids, and accessories.