Flat Bats

[Brian McKenna]

As noted in David Nemec's The Official Rules of Baseball Illustrated:

Flat bats (favored for bunting and slapping balls foul) were made legal in the National League in 1885 and the American Association two years later.

Nemec asserts that in (after) 1893 when flat bats became illegal, "some batsmen were unable to adapt to bats that were entirely round and were soon out of the majors."

A couple questions:

Is this assertion true?
How many actually used flat bats, majors/minors?

[rrhersh]

There are scattered reports in my notes of flat bats, both before and after they were legalized. My impression is that some batters used them when going to the plate to bunt. When they were abolished in 1893 the discussion suggests that bunt specialists were using them, and they were outlawed specifically to make bunts more difficult.