Baseball Bat

In Grand Theft Auto VI, the Baseball Bat is classified as a Bat. No further weapon statistics, purchase price, manufacturer, modification options, or named variant are established here.

The weapon’s basic form has changed very little across the series, although its material and decoration have varied. Grand Theft Auto III and Vice City used a wooden bat with black detailing and a number 7. Chinatown Wars also returned to a wooden version.

San Andreas through Vice City Stories instead used an unmarked aluminium bat with a black grip. Grand Theft Auto IV and its episodes retained that plain aluminium appearance. An early GTA IV news report showed gangsters holding brown wooden bats, while later episodes included bloody prop versions and The Lost and Damned featured a wooden prop.

Grand Theft Auto V and Online used aluminium again, this time marked with “G.E.S.”, “XL”, a Ballas B, and a Western States Baseball League emblem. Some GTA V promotional images nevertheless showed Franklin and Trevor carrying wooden bats. The Definitive Edition of GTA III replaced that game’s original model with an aluminium design closer to the San Andreas version.

Earlier 3D Universe bats generally offered more reach than most melee weapons; the Machete and Katana shared that reach. In GTA III, Vice City, and Liberty City Stories, two strikes could kill pedestrians, police, or gang members: one usually knocked the target down and another finished them on the ground. San Andreas raised this to three hits.

The bat was heavy enough to prevent sprinting in most 3D Universe appearances, with Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories as exceptions. GTA III also differed in that striking vehicles with it caused no damage. Other 3D Universe games allowed repeated blows to badly damage a vehicle until it caught fire and exploded.

In GTA IV and Episodes from Liberty City, it was slower and less lethal than the Knife but could keep opponents at range, generally taking three or four hits to kill. Head strikes could immediately knock down or kill an NPC. A properly timed untargeted swing sometimes disarmed an armed opponent, particularly one carrying a handgun or submachine gun, while a dodge-and-counter could produce a one-hit kill.

The Lost and Damned allowed racers to use the bat against other riders. A light strike could shove a rival aside, while a stronger hit could unseat them, except for Terry or Clay. The same games allowed the bat to deform vehicles and break exposed components; helicopters were especially vulnerable to such damage.

Chinatown Wars treated the Baseball Bat as a slow, high-damage melee weapon. Unlike the Nightstick, it knocked victims to the ground, leaving them exposed there. GTA V and Online kept much of the GTA IV-style behaviour, including the possibility of a lethal head hit.

Within GTA V and Online’s melee weapon statistics, the Baseball Bat shared its strength rating with the Golf Club and Pool Cue. It was therefore grouped with those two rather than the shorter, faster Knife.

The bat was frequently placed at safehouses in GTA III and Liberty City Stories, and it was often carried by criminal NPCs. GTA IV and its episodes sold it through Underground Gun Shops for $5. Vice City offered it at Bunch of Tools for $80 after the mission Riot.

GTA V did not sell the Baseball Bat through Ammu-Nation. It instead appeared at fixed locations across San Andreas, including sports grounds, buildings, shops, rural properties, and mission areas. In GTA Online it was not normally sold, though players who picked one up in certain missions could keep it; a Gun Van weekly selection could also offer it free during Los Santos Drug Wars.

GTA III originally allowed sprinting with the bat and used a red-and-yellow design with a red handle. Its bat texture was shared with Molotov Cocktails in GTA III, Vice City, and Liberty City Stories. In GTA Online, entering Online before returning to Story Mode could remove the bat from every protagonist’s weapon wheel, alongside Molotov Cocktails and the Golf Club.