Ask someone where baseball bats come from, and they'll probably tell you the obvious answer: Wood.

And, of course, that's true. But there's a lot more to the story.

There are thousands of species (kinds) of trees, but not just any old tree can make a baseball bat! Do you know why?

If you've ever wondered where baseball bats come from and exactly how they're made, here's the whole story - from seedling to stadium!

Not everyone can hit the ball like Barry Bonds or Sammy Sosa, but our baseball bats all come from the same place!

In fact, 9 out of 10 wooden bats are made from the wood of the White Ash, a tree that can grow 80 feet tall with a trunk 2 feet across. The remaining bats most likely come from Sugar Maple trees.

White Ash wood is very strong and very hard - and it has to be. Imagine the whallop a 90 mile-an-hour fastball packs! Other types of wood wouldn't stand a chance.

Old-timers like Babe Ruth used bats made of hickory, another tough - but very heavy - wood. Today's players like ash, because it's very strong while still being relatively light. This lets the batter swing the bat faster and, hopefully, hit the ball harder and farther.

From Seedling to Stadium

Jack Norton knows a lot about baseball bats. His company supplies the wood that will become a Louisville Slugger, a very famous brand of bat that has been around almost as long as baseball itself.

His company owns and protects 10,000 acres of timberland in New York and Pennsylvania, in a region called the "ash belt." Most of the world's baseball bats come from this one spot!

He says that the first - and maybe most important step - in making baseball bats is taking care of the trees they come from.

9 out of 10 wooden bats are made from White Ash.

A White Ash tree will grow for at least 75 years before being cut down to make baseball bats. About 40 bats will be made from an average tree.

To ensure a good and lasting supply, the trees are carefully managed. They are only cut down in ways that don't harm the environment and which allow new White Ash trees to grow and replace the old ones. This is called sustainable harvesting, which simply means doing things in a way to make sure there will always be White Ash trees in the future.

Cut and Dried After the trees are logged, they are split into pieces of wood around 40 inches long and 3 inches across. That's just a little bit bigger than a bat, but this wood isn't ready to become a bat just yet!

The longest part of making a bat is the drying, or curing, of the wood, which can take several months. Wood contains a lot of moisture, and before bats can be made from it, the wood needs to slowly dry the right amount.

Wood for baseball bats used to be dried in a kiln, which is like a big oven. This required a lot of energy and would make a lot of smoke. Instead, the wood today is dried in climate controlled chambers that use fresh air and very little energy.

These billets soon will become baseball bats.

The dried wood is then inspected closely. If it makes the grade, it is squeezed under a lot of pressure to make the wood as compact and strong as possible. At this point, the cylinders of wood are called billets. These are the pieces of wood shipped to the factory to be made into bats.

As the Bat Turns Workers take the billets and load them into a lathe, a machine that spins - or "turns" - the wood at very high speed and shapes it into a baseball bat.

Skilled workers use a machine called a lathe to hand turn baseball bats.

The lathe can actually trace a template, or pattern, over and over again. That way, exact copies of a bat can be made. A lot of big-league players have specific instructions for the size, shape and weight of their bats, and this is how they come out just right, every time!

A machine burns the trademark into a new baseball bat.

After being turned on the lathe, the bats are sanded smooth. The label or trademark is then branded or burned into the wood.

The label is placed on the side of the bat where the grain of the wood is widest, and therefore weakest. Players know to hold their bat with the label facing them - that way, they'll hit the ball with the strongest part of the bat, the side with the grain closest together.

After being branded, the bats are sanded perfectly smooth one more time before getting their final coat. They're dipped into a vat of water-based lacquer and then hung up on racks to dry.

Freshly lacquered bats are hung upside-down to dry.

After drying completely and being buffed smooth, the bats are ready for action!

Play ball!