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Kirk Ferentz has an encyclopedic recall of Iowa players, the result of a quarter-century as Hawkeyes head coach, plus another nine years as an assistant.

Mention a current Hawkeye, and Ferentz reflexively lists two or three from his own past, noting details about their play style, top moments, personality, NFL path and more. But Cooper DeJean, Iowa’s ubiquitous star defensive back, projected to go in the first round of the upcoming NFL draft, elicits a different type of response.

When watching DeJean last season, Ferentz kept thinking about a player he never coached or even met, who competed for Iowa and died more than a decade before Ferentz was born. The most hallowed name in program history and one of the state’s sporting heroes, whose legacy is celebrated at every Iowa home game — that’s the comp Ferentz selects for DeJean.

“I don’t know how many players have been better than him, however long we’ve been playing football, 1889,” Ferentz said of DeJean. “Nile Kinnick’s name is up on the stadium.”

Kinnick is Iowa’s only Heisman Trophy winner. In 1939, he played 402 of 420 minutes, contributed to 107 of the team’s 130 points scored, led the nation in kickoff return yards and intercepted eight passes, a team record now shared. He’s in Iowa’s athletics Hall of Fame for both football and basketball, and caught pitches from Bob Feller on an American Legion team. Kinnick excelled at whatever he did and wherever he did it — from his hometown of Adel, Iowa, to the stadium that would later bear his name.

DeJean is shaping his legend from similar Iowa soil, as a four-sport star from the tiny town of Odebolt, and an alphabet soup high school (OABCIG) within the state that delivered “Field of Dreams.” His high school career featured championships and highlights, but also intrigue, because he competed in such a sparsely populated area. His most famous play at Iowa didn’t actually count.

DeJean’s post-Iowa path will be dramatically different from Kinnick’s. ESPN’s Mel Kiper and others expect him to become the first Iowa defensive back taken in the first round of the NFL draft under Ferentz, and the first from Iowa since Tom Knight went No. 9 overall in 1997. Although DeJean played multiple defensive back positions at Iowa and dazzled on punt returns, he’s being evaluated primarily as a cornerback.

“It just seems like everything he does, he’s good and he wins,” Ferentz said of DeJean.

So, who is Cooper DeJean, and why do Iowa’s program stewards already consider him a living legend?


TYLER BARNES WILL owe Travis Schroeder for life.

Barnes, Iowa’s director of recruiting, used to live next door to Schoeder, not far from Iowa’s campus. A native of Odebolt, Schroeder would pepper his neighbor about an emerging star athlete from his hometown.

Schroeder had never seen DeJean play but heard all the buzz. Plus, he knew DeJean’s family. DeJean’s grandfather, Al Wilke, coached Schroeder in high school football. When DeJean’s parents moved to town from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, they opened a bar and grill — originally called Cobe’s, for Cooper and his younger brother Beckett, and now called The Bowling Alley — that is owned by Schroeder’s relatives.

So it goes in Odebolt, a town of fewer than 1,000 residents in the northwest part of the state.

“You can get from one end to another in probably five minutes,” DeJean said. “We’ve got no stoplights, we’ve got two bar and grills, two gas stations, probably seven total stop signs.”

Added Schroeder: “You’ll drive through town and you might not see a car. You might not see a person.”

While attending an Iowa basketball game with Barnes, Schroeder again told his friend to consider DeJean.

“Trav,” Schroeder remembered Barnes jokingly saying, “there are no D-I athletes coming out of Odebolt.”

The truth: Iowa prided itself on identifying small-town prospects from the state, often overlooked as recruits, and developing them into big-stage stars. The team has sent several to the NFL, such as Panthers linebacker Josey Jewell, who grew up on a farm in Decorah (population: 7,747), or Vikings tight end T.J. Hockenson, from Chariton (population: 4,220). The Odebolt area hadn’t produced many top-division players, but Trever Ryen, who attended DeJean’s high school, walked on at Iowa State and became an All-Big 12 punt returner and a solid wide receiver.

Barnes watched film of DeJean.

“Maybe this kid’s got a chance,” he told himself.


DeJEAN COMPETED IN football, basketball, track and baseball, and, as a young boy, wrestling and soccer. He played everything — not just because he wanted to — but also out of necessity.

Odebolt and its surrounding towns — Arthur, Battle Creek and Ida Grove — need their best athletes to participate in all sports. The towns feed into the same middle school, in Odebolt, and the same high school, about 15 minutes from DeJean’s home, in Ida Grove. Initially two separate school districts spread out over four counties and 259 square miles, they merged in 2018 to form OABCIG.

Sports resonated in the area, especially for the DeJeans. Cooper’s father, Jason, played basketball at Huron University in South Dakota. His mom, Katie, played basketball and softball at Briar Cliff University in Sioux City, Iowa. Wilke, Katie’s father, coached and was involved in sports, often taking Cooper and his younger brothers to fields and courts around town.

“That’s something they stressed to me: ‘Play all the sports, there’s no need to specialize in one,'” Cooper said. “That’s the only time in your life where you can play multiple sports, so why not play all four in high school?”

At OABCIG High, he was a three-time all-state selection in football with two state titles. His credentials included: 1,832 career points in basketball, more than Harrison Barnes, the McDonald’s All-American out of Ames High School now with the Sacramento Kings; state champion for long jump and 100-meter dash as a senior; all-state honors in football, basketball and track as a senior; three letters in baseball, which is played in the summer, while also juggling AAU basketball. In 2021, DeJean was named Iowa High School Male Athlete of the Year by the Des Moines Register.

Many pegged DeJean — at 6 foot and ½ — to play basketball in college.

“If he was 6-4 or 6-5, he probably wouldn’t be playing football,” Jason DeJean said.

Larry Allen, DeJean’s football coach at OABCIG High, didn’t have many reference points in predicting DeJean’s college path.

“One kid that played at [Northern Iowa] and one kid that played at Iowa State is all I’ve ever had, so you didn’t really understand the talent level,” Allen said. “A few people asked: Is this what a D-I guy looks like? Is he really that good? He’s pretty dang good, but you just wonder.”

DeJean came to Iowa’s campus 12 or 13 times, including the team’s football camp, but didn’t secure an offer right away, for two reasons. He needed a position after logging snaps at quarterback, wide receiver and defensive back for OABCIG. He also needed a personality.

“He could sit on a Zoom call and just stare at you for two hours without saying a word,” Barnes said. “This kid, does he have a pulse? Is there a heartbeat? Cooper, just give us something. Smile, laugh. He was just so serious.”

DeJean was very reserved, but his athletic success reverberated, leading to an Iowa offer. Many of DeJean’s best highlights came on the basketball court, where he began dunking the summer before his freshman year of high school. So in January 2020, Barnes made the trek to Odebolt for a basketball game. Coaches from two other major conference schools also attended. Barnes remembers them fussing over what position DeJean would play. Other than Iowa, DeJean had offers from only FCS programs in the Dakotas.

As Barnes watched, DeJean opened the game with five consecutive dunks.

“Three of them were over 6-foot-4 guys,” Barnes said. “I’m just sitting there, giggling, like, ‘You [other schools] are nuts. This kid is something. I don’t know what he is. But you don’t see that in Iowa very often, those type of athletic traits.'”

Barnes texted Iowa’s staff: He’s the real deal. DeJean wanted to play quarterback, though, and Iowa pegged him for defense. He had official visits to Virginia and Kansas State scheduled but canceled them after COVID-19 hit in March 2020.

Around that time, Barnes texted DeJean, telling him that he belonged at Iowa, and to trust the team’s projection for him, as “a high-level safety.” To Barnes’ surprise, DeJean responded and committed on the spot.

“We lucked into him,” Barnes said. “I wish I could say we had a great evaluation, but thank god for my neighbor Travis.”


play

1:07

Iowa’s go-ahead TD wiped off after fair catch call

Cooper DeJean returns punt for a 54-yard Iowa touchdown to grab the lead, but it is taken off the board after DeJean appeared to motion for a fair catch.

LEGENDS ARE MOLDED through moments, and DeJean delivered plenty, both before and after he came to Iowa.

There was his final high school game, the 2020 state championship against Van Meter at Northern Iowa’s UNI-Dome. In the final five minutes, he blocked an extra-point attempt to keep OABCIG at a single-score deficit, returned a punt 14 yards and then scored a touchdown and the tying two-point conversion, both on runs, with 1:30 left.

Van Meter fumbled the ensuing kickoff, recovered by DeJean’s younger brother, Beckett. On the next play, Cooper kept the ball, ran to his left, wriggled free of a defender, stopped, reversed field, broke two more tackles and scored the winning touchdown. OABCIG won the final 25 games of DeJean’s high school career and its first two state titles. He accounted for 9,520 total yards and 132 touchdowns during the stretch.

“He did everything,” Ferentz said. “Some guys just seem to do things other people can’t do.”

Cooper barely played as a freshman at Iowa, not even making the travel roster for early games such as the Cy-Hawk clash at Iowa State. But he found a role on special teams and started the regular-season finale against Nebraska at safety.

DeJean’s playmaking prowess was on full display in 2022. After a quiet season opener, he had interceptions in his next three games, scoring his first touchdown on a 45-yard return against Rutgers. In a 24-10 win against Wisconsin that season, DeJean had a pick-six, 10 tackles (one for loss) and 81 punt return yards, including a 41-yard runback. He also downed a punt at the Wisconsin 1-yard line. He finished with three pick-sixes that fall, setting Iowa’s single-season record and tying the career mark.

His most impressive play came last season and didn’t even count. Iowa trailed Minnesota 12-10 late in the fourth quarter and seemed unlikely to generate points from its woeful offense. After Iowa forced a three-and-out, DeJean fielded a punt off a bounce near midfield, right beside the Minnesota sideline.

DeJean eluded the grasp of two Gophers, raced up the sideline, cut back through the arm of another and then outraced Kerry Brown for the go-ahead touchdown with 1:21 left. Had Kinnick ever been louder?

“Probably would have been the greatest play in the history of Iowa football had it counted,” Ferentz said. “I’m still trying to figure out how that wasn’t a legal play.”

After a review, officials ruled that DeJean had made an invalid fair catch signal by waving his left arm before scooping up the ball. Still, it put DeJean’s game-breaking abilities on full display.

“He’s got great speed and great ball skills, but his ability to be balanced and his footwork is so good,” defensive coordinator Phil Parker said. “He’s kind of a rare guy. Everybody said, ‘Wow, look at what you did to Cooper.’ Well, Cooper did that to himself. Cooper made who he is today because of the drive that he has to be great.”


NILE KINNICK DID it all for Iowa. His team records on offense and defense lasted for decades. His Big Ten record for single-game punt return yards spanned from 1939 until Maryland’s William Likely broke it in 2015. Although Iowa has popularized “Punting is Winning” in recent years, Kinnick still holds records for single-game punts (16) and punt yards (731).

DeJean shined on defense and special teams, but a drumbeat grew for him to see time on offense, especially as Iowa reached historic lows for production.

“There were signs up around town,” Jason DeJean said. “There was a place in Ida Grove that had a billboard: Put Cooper on offense. I would have loved to see more of that, but it didn’t work out.”

As Ferentz mulled whether to use Cooper on offense, he remembered what his predecessor Hayden Fry once said: If Ohio State loses a player, the next one might be better. We don’t have that here. In mid-November, Ferentz relented and DeJean started getting reps on offense. But during a practice he fractured his left fibula, ending his season.

“There’s a lot of irony in that,” Ferentz said.

DeJean still received consensus All-America honors despite missing the final four games, including the Big Ten championship. He won the Big Ten’s individual awards for defensive back and return specialist.

If DeJean had elected to return as a senior in 2024, Ferentz ensured he would have had a more significant role for the Hawkeyes’ offense.

“I told him if he came back, he’d be one of those guys like Nile Kinnick, put his name on a building,” Parker said. “I never saw Nile Kinnick play, but all I can say is [DeJean] is the version of what I think he would be today.”

On Jan. 4, DeJean declared for the draft. While recovering from leg surgery, he attended the NFL combine but didn’t participate in on-field tests. He started to run at full speed in February, but did only the bench press at Iowa’s pro day last month. DeJean is set to run the 40-yard dash and participate in all drills and tests for teams Monday in Iowa City. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, DeJean sent a letter to NFL clubs last week informing them he has been cleared to return to all football activities.

He’s the latest in a line of notable defensive backs under Ferentz and Parker, who coached the secondary for his first 13 years on staff before taking over as coordinator. Iowa has had 17 defensive backs selected since the 2000 draft, including eventual All-Pros in Desmond King, Micah Hyde and Bob Sanders. Since the Big Ten launched its individual position awards in 2011, Iowa has won six times with six different players. No other team has won more than twice.

The Hawkeyes also have consistently produced first-round picks, 13 in all under Ferentz, including two last year and another in 2022. But none played defensive back.

“If you had retro picks, then we’d have more first-rounders,” Ferentz said. “Bob Sanders should have been a first-rounder, and if he was 6-foot, I’m sure he would have been. But if he was 6-foot, he would have gone to Penn State and they would have recruited him. But he was 5-foot-8, and he didn’t.

“But it’d be nice if it happens, mostly just for Cooper’s sake, a nice feather in his cap.”

Much of DeJean’s NFL evaluation is assessing what he will be at the next level. In 2022, he started 10 games at cornerback and three at the cash position, a safety-linebacker hybrid. He practiced early in his career at safety, but started every game last fall at corner before the injury.

“Some teams might think he’s a nickel, some teams might think he’s a corner, some teams might think he’s a safety, but he’s only going to play one,” an NFL scout said, adding that how DeJean runs Monday will be a significant factor. “He’s going to get drafted high enough that you draft him for that position.”

The first-round projections for DeJean — Kiper has him at No. 21 on his latest Big Board — are as a cornerback, where he would be an NFL rarity. The league has had a few white cornerbacks over the years, but none as a consistent starter since Jason Sehorn, who started 73 games for the Giants from 1996 to 2002.

During a media session at the combine, DeJean faced questions about being a white cornerback, just like his friend and Iowa teammate, Riley Moss, did the year before. Moss memorably responded, “Obviously, I look different. I don’t play different.”

“I believe I can play corner,” DeJean said. “I have the size and speed to do so. But with my athleticism, I understand the talk of moving to safety, playing the nickel, moving me around the defense. At the end of the day, you put me out on the field, I’m going to find the ball and try to make plays and impact the defense in some way.”

DeJean is surprised to learn that he would become the first defensive back selected in the first round under Ferentz. He’s flattered by the comparisons to Kinnick, who he called “a damn good player” and whose name he said is synonymous with Iowa football.

When it comes to legacy, though, DeJean’s thoughts go back to Odebolt, where he takes pictures and signs autographs every time he visits, and where he plans to watch the draft with family and friends.

“I’ve been blessed to be in this position, growing up in a small town,” he said. “My biggest thing is just being an inspiration to the kids around my area, to show them if you put everything into what you want to do, down the road, you can achieve big dreams.”

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Nebraska transfer WR Gilmore dismissed from team

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Nebraska transfer WR Gilmore dismissed from team

LINCOLN, Neb. — Nebraska receiver Hardley Gilmore IV, who transferred from Kentucky in January, has been dismissed from the team, coach Matt Rhule announced Saturday.

The second-year player from Belle Glade, Florida, had come to Nebraska along with former Kentucky teammate Dane Key and receivers coach Daikiel Shorts Jr. and had received praise from teammates and coaches for his performance in spring practice.

Rhule did not disclose a reason for removing Gilmore.

“Nothing outside the program, nothing criminal or anything like that,” Rhule said. “Just won’t be with us anymore.”

Gilmore was charged with misdemeanor assault in December for allegedly punching someone in the face at a storage facility in Lexington, Kentucky, the Lexington Herald Leader reported on Jan. 2.

Gilmore played in seven games as a freshman for the Wildcats and caught six passes for 153 yards. He started against Murray State and caught a 52-yard touchdown pass on Kentucky’s opening possession. He was a consensus four-star recruit who originally chose Kentucky over Penn State and UCF.

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What are torpedo bats? Are they legal? What to know about MLB’s hottest trend

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What are torpedo bats? Are they legal? What to know about MLB's hottest trend

The opening weekend of the 2025 MLB season was taken over by a surprise star — torpedo bats.

The bowling pin-shaped bats became the talk of the sport after the Yankees’ home run onslaught on the first Saturday of the season put it in the spotlight and the buzz hasn’t slowed since.

What exactly is a torpedo bat? How does it help hitters? And how is it legal? Let’s dig in.

Read: An MIT-educated professor, the Yankees and the bat that could be changing baseball


What is a torpedo bat and why is it different from a traditional MLB bat?

The idea of the torpedo bat is to take a size format — say, 34 inches and 32 ounces — and distribute the wood in a different geometric shape than the traditional form to ensure the fattest part of the bat is located where the player makes the most contact. Standard bats taper toward an end cap that is as thick diametrically as the sweet spot of the barrel. The torpedo bat moves some of the mass on the end of the bat about 6 to 7 inches lower, giving it a bowling-pin shape, with a much thinner end.


How does it help hitters?

The benefits for those who like swinging with it — and not everyone who has swung it likes it — are two-fold. Both are rooted in logic and physics. The first is that distributing more mass to the area of most frequent contact aligns with players’ swing patterns and provides greater impact when bat strikes ball. Players are perpetually seeking ways to barrel more balls, and while swings that connect on the end of the bat and toward the handle probably will have worse performance than with a traditional bat, that’s a tradeoff they’re willing to make for the additional slug. And as hitters know, slug is what pays.

The second benefit, in theory, is increased bat speed. Imagine a sledgehammer and a broomstick that both weigh 32 ounces. The sledgehammer’s weight is almost all at the end, whereas the broomstick’s is distributed evenly. Which is easier to swing fast? The broomstick, of course, because shape of the sledgehammer takes more strength and effort to move. By shedding some of the weight off the end of the torpedo bat and moving it toward the middle, hitters have found it swings very similarly to a traditional model but with slightly faster bat velocity.


Why did it become such a big story so early in the 2025 MLB season?

Because the New York Yankees hit nine home runs in a game Saturday and Michael Kay, their play-by-play announcer, pointed out that some of them came from hitters using a new bat shape. The fascination was immediate. While baseball, as an industry, has implemented forward-thinking rules in recent seasons, the modification to something so fundamental and known as the shape of a bat registered as bizarre. The initial response from many who saw it: How is this legal?


OK. How is this legal?

Major League Baseball’s bat regulations are relatively permissive. Currently, the rules allow for a maximum barrel diameter of 2.61 inches, a maximum length of 42 inches and a smooth and round shape. The lack of restrictions allows MLB’s authorized bat manufacturers to toy with bat geometry and for the results to still fall within the regulations.


Who came up with the idea of using them?

The notion of a bowling-pin-style bat has kicked around baseball for years. Some bat manufacturers made smaller versions as training tools. But the version that’s now infiltrating baseball goes back two years when a then-Yankees coach named Aaron Leanhardt started asking hitters how they should counteract the giant leaps in recent years made by pitchers.

When Yankees players responded that bigger barrels would help, Leanhardt — an MIT-educated former Michigan physics professor who left academia to work in the sports industry — recognized that as long as bats stayed within MLB parameters, he could change their geometry to make them a reality. Leanhardt, who left the Yankees to serve as major league field coordinator for the Miami Marlins over the winter, worked with bat manufacturers throughout the 2023 and 2024 seasons to make that a reality.


When did it first appear in MLB games?

It’s unclear specifically when. But Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton used a torpedo bat last year and went on a home run-hitting rampage in October that helped send the Yankees to the World Series. New York Mets star Francisco Lindor also used a torpedo-style bat last year and went on to finish second in National League MVP voting.


Who are some of the other notable early users of torpedo bats?

In addition to Stanton and Lindor, Yankees hitters Anthony Volpe, Austin Wells, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt have used torpedoes to great success. Others who have used them in games include Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero, Minnesota’s Ryan Jeffers and Toronto’s Davis Schneider. And that’s just the beginning. Hundreds more players are expected to test out torpedoes — and perhaps use them in games — in the coming weeks.


How is this different from a corked bat?

Corking bats involves drilling a hole at the end of the bat, filling it in and capping it. The use of altered bats allows players to swing faster because the material with which they replace the wood — whether it’s cork, superballs or another material — is lighter. Any sort of bat adulteration is illegal and, if found, results in suspension.


Could a rule be changed to ban them?

Could it happen? Sure. Leagues and governing bodies have put restrictions on equipment they believe fundamentally altered fairness. Stick curvature is limited in hockey. Full-body swimsuits made of polyurethane and neoprene are banned by World Aquatics. But officials at MLB have acknowledged that the game’s pendulum has swung significantly toward pitching in recent years, and if an offensive revolution comes about because of torpedo bats — and that is far from a guarantee — it could bring about more balance to the game. If that pendulum swings too far, MLB could alter its bat regulations, something it has done multiple times already this century.


So the torpedo bat is here to stay?

Absolutely. Bat manufacturers are cranking them out and shipping them to interested players with great urgency. Just how widely the torpedo bat is adopted is the question that will play out over the rest of the season. But it has piqued the curiosity of nearly every hitter in the big leagues, and just as pitchers toy with new pitches to see if they can marginally improve themselves, hitters will do the same with bats.

Comfort is paramount with a bat, so hitters will test them during batting practice and in cage sessions before unleashing them during the game. As time goes on, players will find specific shapes that are most comfortable to them and best suit their swing during bat-fitting sessions — similar to how golfers seek custom clubs. But make no mistake: This is an almost-overnight alteration of the game, and “traditional or torpedo” is a question every big leaguer going forward will ask himself.

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‘It’s taken on a life of its own’: Inside the 48 hours torpedo bats launched into baseball lore

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'It's taken on a life of its own': Inside the 48 hours torpedo bats launched into baseball lore

At 1:54 ET on Saturday afternoon, New York Yankees play-by-play man Michael Kay lit the fuse on what will be remembered as either one of the most metamorphic conversations in baseball history or one of its strangest.

During spring training, someone in the organization had mentioned to Kay that the team’s analytics department had counseled players on where pitches tended to strike their bats, and with subsequent buy-in from some of the players, bats had been designed around that information. In the hours before the Yankees’ home game against the Brewers that day, Kay told the YES Network production staff about this, alerting them so they could look for an opportunity to highlight the equipment.

After the Yankees clubbed four homers in the first inning, a camera zoomed in on Jazz Chisholm Jr.‘s bat in the second inning. “You see the shape of Chisholm’s bat…” Kay said on air. “It’s got a big barrel on it,” Paul O’Neill responded, before Kay went on to describe the analysis behind the bat shaped like a torpedo.

Chisholm singled to left field, and after Anthony Volpe worked the count against former teammate Nestor Cortes to a full count, Volpe belted a home run to right field using the same kind of bat. A reporter watching the game texted Kay: Didn’t he hit the meat part of the bat you were talking about — just inside where the label normally is?

Yep, Kay responded. Within an hour of Kay’s commentary, the video of Chisholm’s bat and Kay’s exchange with O’Neill was posted on multiple platforms of social media, amplified over and over. What happened over the next 48 hours was what you get when you mix the power of social media and the desperation of a generation of beleaguered hitters. Batting averages are at a historic low, strikeout rates at a historic high, and on a sunny spring day in the Bronx, here were the Yankees blasting baseballs into the seats with what seemed to be a strangely shaped magic bat.

An oasis of offense had formed on the horizon, and hitters — from big leaguers to Little Leaguers, including at least one member of Congress — paddled toward it furiously. Acres of trees will be felled and shaped to feed the thirst for this new style of bats. Last weekend, one bat salesman asked his boss, “What the heck have we done?”

Jared Smith, CEO of bat-maker Victus, said, “I’ve been making bats for 15, 16 years. … This is the most talked-about thing in the industry since I started. And I hope we can make better-performing bats that work for players.”

According to Bobby Hillerich, the vice president of production at Hillerich & Bradsby, his company — which is based in Louisville, Kentucky, and makes Louisville Slugger bats — had produced 20 versions of the torpedo bat as of this past Saturday, and in less than a week, that number has tripled as players and teams continually call in their orders.

Even though Saturday marked its launch into the mainstream, this shape of bat has actually been around for a while. Hillerich & Bradsby had its first contact with a team about the style in 2021 and had nondisclosure agreements with four teams as the bat evolved; back then, it was referred to as the “bowling pin” bat. The Cubs’ Nico Hoerner was the first major leaguer to try it — and apparently wasn’t comfortable with it. Cody Bellinger tried it when he was with the Cubs before joining the Yankees during the offseason.

Before Atlanta took the field Sunday night, Braves catcher Drake Baldwin recalled trying one in the Arizona Fall League last year (noting that his first impression was that it “looked weird”). Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor used it in 2024, in a year in which he would finish second in the NL MVP voting; Lindor’s was a little different from Volpe’s version, with a cup hollowed out at the end of the bat. Giancarlo Stanton swung one throughout his playoff surge last fall, but no one in the media noticed, perhaps because of how the pitch-black color of Stanton’s bat camouflaged the shape.

Minnesota manager Rocco Baldelli saw one in the Twins’ dugout during spring training and picked it up, his attention drawn to the unusual shape. “What the hell is this thing?” he asked, wondering aloud whether the design was legal. When he was assured it was, he put it back down.

Baldelli’s experience reflected the way hitters have used and assessed bats since the advent of baseball: They’ll pick up bats and see how they feel, their interest fueled by the specter of success. Tony Gwynn won eight batting titles, and many teammates and opposing hitters — Barry Bonds among them — asked whether they could inspect his bats. The torpedo bat’s arrival was simply the latest version of that long-held search for the optimal tool.

On Opening Day, eight teams had some version of the torpedo bat within their stock, according to one major league source. But with video of the Yankees’ home runs being hit off unusual bats saturating social media Saturday afternoon, the phone of Kevin Uhrhan, pro bat sales rep for Louisville Slugger, blew up with requests for torpedo bats. James Rowson, the hitting coach of the Yankees, began to get text inquiries — about 100, he later estimated. Everyone wanted to know about the bat; everyone wanted to get their own.

In San Diego, Braves players asked about the bats, and by Sunday morning, equipment manager Calvin Minasian called in the team’s order. By the middle of the week, all 30 teams had asked for the bats. “Every team started trying to get orders in,” Hillerich said. “We’re trying to scramble to get wood. And then it was: How fast can we get this to retail?”

Victus produces the bats Chisholm and Volpe are using and has made them available for retail. Three senior players, all in their 70s, stopped by the Victus store to ask about the torpedoes. A member of Congress who plays baseball reached out to Louisville Slugger.

The Cincinnati Reds contacted Hillerich & Bradsby, saying, “We need you in Cincinnati on Monday ASAP,” and soon after, Uhrhan and pro bat production manager Brian Hillerich, Bobby’s brother, made the 90-minute drive from the company’s factory in Louisville with test bats.

Reds star Elly De La Cruz tried a few, decided on a favorite and used it for a career performance that night.

“You can think in New York, maybe there was wind,” Bobby Hillerich said. “Elly hits two home runs and gets seven RBIs. That just took it to a whole new level.”

A few days after the Yankees’ explosion, Aaron Leanhardt, who had led New York’s effort to customize its bats as a minor league hitting coordinator before being hired by the Marlins as their field coordinator, was in the middle of a horseshoe of reporters, explaining the background. “There are a lot more cameras here today than I’m used to,” he said, laughing.

Stanton spoke with reporters about the simple concept behind the bat: build a design for where a hitter is most likely to make contact. “You wonder why no one has thought of it before, for sure,” Stanton said. “I didn’t know if it was, like, a rule-based thing of why they were shaped like that.”

Over and over, MLB officials assured those asking: Yes, the bats are legal and meet the sport’s equipment specifications. Trevor Megill, the Brewers’ closer, complained about the bats, calling them like “something used in slow-pitch softball,” but privately, baseball officials were thrilled by the possibility of seeing offense goosed, something they had been attempting through rule change in recent years.

“It’s all the rage right now, given what transpired over the weekend,” said Jeremy Zoll, assistant general manager of the Twins. “I’m sure more and more guys are going to experiment with it as a result, just to see if it’s something they like.”

That personal preference is a factor for which some front office types believe the mass orders of the bats don’t account: The Yankees’ recommendations to each hitter were based on months of past data of how that player tended to strike the ball. This was not about a one-size-fits all bat; it was about precise bat measurements that reflected an individual player’s swing.

“I had never heard of it. I’ve used the same bat for nine years, so I think I’ll stick with that,” White Sox outfielder Andrew Benintendi said. “It’s pretty interesting. It makes sense. If it works for a guy, good for him. If it doesn’t, stick with what you got.”

As longtime player Eric Hosmer explained on the “Baseball Tonight” podcast, the process is a lot like what players can do in golf: look for clubs customized for a player’s particular swing. And, he added, hitting coaches might begin to think more about which bat might be most effective against particular pitchers. If a pitcher tends to throw inside, a torpedo bat could be more effective; if a pitcher is more effective outside, maybe a larger barrel would be more appropriate.

That’s the key, according to an agent representing a player who ordered a bat: “You need years of hitting data in the big leagues to dial it in and hopefully get a better result. He’s still tinkering with it; he may not even use it in a game. … I think of it like switching your irons in golf to blades: It will feel a little different and take some adjusting, and it may even change your swing subtly.”

Two days after the home run explosion, Boone said, “You’re just trying to just get what you can on the margins, move the needle a little bit. And that’s really all you’re going to do. I don’t think this is some revelation to where we’re going to be — it’s not related to the weekend that we had, for example. I don’t think it’s that. Maybe in some cases, for some players it may help them incrementally. That’s how I view it.”

“I’m kind of starting to smile at it a little more … a lot of things that aren’t real.”

Said the player agent: “It’s not an aluminum bat with plutonium in it like everyone is making it out to be.”

Reliever Adam Ottavino watched this all play out, with his 15 years of experience. “It’s the Yankees and they scored a million runs in the first few games, and it’s cool to hate the Yankees and it’s cool to look for the bogeyman,” Ottavino said, “and that’s what some people are going to do, and [you] can’t really stop that. But there’s also a lot of misinformation and noneducation on it too.”

Major league baseball mostly evolves at a glacial pace. For example, the sport is well into the second century of complaints about the surface of the ball and the debate over financial disparity among teams. From time to time, however, baseball has its eclipses, moments that command full attention and inspire change. On a “Sunday Night Baseball” game on May 18, 2008, an umpire’s botched home run call at Yankee Stadium compelled MLB to implement the first instant replay. Buster Posey’s ankle was shattered in a home plate collision in May 2011, imperiling the career of the young star, and new rules about that type of play were rewritten.

The torpedo bat eruption could turn out to be transformative, a time when the industry became aware how a core piece of equipment has been taken for granted and aware that bats could be more precisely designed to augment the ability of each hitter. Or this could all turn out to be a wild overreaction to an outlier day of home runs against a pitching staff having a really bad day.

On Thursday, Cortes — who had been hammered for five homers over two innings in Yankee Stadium — shut out the Reds for six innings.

In Baltimore, Bregman, who had tried the torpedo bat earlier this week, reverted to his usual stock and had three hits against the Orioles, including a home run. Afterward, Bregman said, “It’s the hitter. Not the bat.”

This story was also reported by Jeff Passan, Jorge Castillo, Jesse Rogers and Kiley McDaniel.

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