Add this to Barry Bonds' list of remarkable achievements: he's putting Ottawa on the baseball map. It is there, in Canada's capital, that carpenter Sam Holman carves the preferred tools of America's top home run hitter.

Holman, a former stagehand, says his profession as a bat maker began brewing five years ago as a bar challenge from Bill McKenzie, a good friend and Colorado Rockies scout. McKenzie had just returned from spring training and complained that players were breaking too many bats. "He turned to me and said, 'Sam, you're a carpenter. Do something about this!' "

	“	I tried (using a maple wood bat) and I liked it. Ash wood is a softer wood that has a tendency to split and crack easier. Maple gives you the opportunity that if you feel comfortable with it, you've got a chance of keeping it for a while. ”
		— Barry Bonds

Holman, originally from the tree-less prairies of South Dakota, began reading books on the physics of baseball and came to the conclusion that bat makers were not barking, but chopping up the wrong trees. He decided to try using denser maple wood as opposed to the traditional ash wood used by major bat companies such as Louisville and Rawlings. Within a year, the Toronto Blue Jays were experimenting with the bats, and in the spring of 1998, Holman introduced the harder Canadian bats to Bonds.

"I tried it and I liked it," Bonds said. "Ash wood is a softer wood that has a tendency to split and crack easier. Maple gives you the opportunity that if you feel comfortable with it, you've got a chance of keeping it for a while."

Holman says an ash bat is lucky to last a month and will often crack within a week. Ash bats may soon slip through the cracks of history as well. Bonds is currently one of more than 300 major leaguers using the Maple Rideau Crusher, a reference to Ottawa's famous canal. Holman makes 300 bats a day at $50 a pop for such sluggers as Jose Canseco, Vladimir Guerrero, Carlos Delgado, Albert Pujols and J.D. Drew. By comparison, the industry-leading Hillerich & Bradsby Co. cranks out 1,500 bats a day, including Louisville Sluggers.

"Barry's involvement with the bat has helped us since Day 1," Holman says. "It's been an amazing thing to follow." All of Barry's home runs this year have come off the red-handled, black-barreled bats, and due to his run, Holman is now approached for two to three media interviews a day.

"I don't know how well maple wood is going to help the industry of bat companies," Bonds says. "I think the only reason a lot of bat companies don't use maple is because they wouldn't have to make as many."

But is it the bat or the beholder that is making the difference in Bonds' case?

"I use a maple bat and I have four home runs," teammate and Giants catcher Benito Santiago said. "What he's doing is amazing, no matter what bat you're using."

"Even before maple bats came out he still hit 30 a year and was consistent," fellow teammate Shawon Dunston said. "If Barry says it's the bats, it's the bats. But I say it's not. I say it's him. He's the best."

Bonds contends that because the bats last so long, he can use the same bat in a game that he used in batting practice. He has a chance to get comfortable with it. This is significant because although each bat is crafted to specifications, each bat is also different in ways that only an astute hitter can sense.

Holman likens choosing wood to buying Cracker Jacks: You never know what the prize will be.

	“	Even before maple bats came out he still hit 30 a year and was consistent. If Barry says it's the bats, it's the bats. But I say it's not. I say it's him. He's the best. ”
		— Shawon Dunston on Bonds

Bonds receives a dozen bats a week, and out of those, only five or six are deemed worthy of being used in a game.

"Hitters are very particular about their wood," Holman says, "and I think when your life depends upon it and you're making millions of dollars, you start to research it. I think if they could, they'd spend a lot of time in the forest."

There will always be a market for both ash and maple bats if for no other reason than there are simply not enough of each tree to go around. Holman believes that the next major innovation will be from big-barreled bats to thin-barreled models, like the one he crafts for Vladimir Guerrero.

"I know I'm talking to 200 years of tradition and they'll all say 'Poppycock!' and they may be right," Holman says, "But I also know that if aerodynamics count, the narrower cylinder will go faster through the air. It's simple aerodynamics."

Holman traveled to Montreal in August to see Bonds take on the Expos and offered to send along a thin-barreled bat for him to try next spring, which doesn't bode well for pitchers in any country.

As they finished chatting, the Hall of Famer smiled at the carpenter and said, "You have become quite the success story! I'm very impressed."

Lisa Fenn is an Associate Producer for ESPN's "Baseball Tonight" and "Baseball 2Day."

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