Digital Johnny, Real Johnny

Baseball Bat Law

Yesterday, my co-worker showed me this funny charge description that he found on a claim we received:

Now, I didn't know that possessing an altered bat was illegal outside the game of baseball (I guess putting cork in your bat makes it lighter, giving you an advantage when hitting), so I checked out Penal Code Sect. 12020(a) and the main of it says:

Any person in this state who does any of the following
is punishable by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year
or in the state prison:

(1) Manufactures or causes to be manufactured, imports into the
state, keeps for sale, or offers or exposes for sale, or who gives,
lends, or possesses any cane gun or wallet gun, any undetectable
firearm, any firearm which is not immediately recognizable as a
firearm, any camouflaging firearm container, any ammunition which
contains or consists of any flechette dart, any bullet containing or
carrying an explosive agent, any ballistic knife, any multiburst
trigger activator, any nunchaku, any short-barreled shotgun, any
short-barreled rifle, any metal knuckles, any belt buckle knife, any
leaded cane, any zip gun, any shuriken, any unconventional pistol,
any lipstick case knife, any cane sword, any shobi-zue, any air gauge
knife, any writing pen knife, any metal military practice
handgrenade or metal replica handgrenade, or any instrument or weapon
of the kind commonly known as a blackjack, slungshot, billy,
sandclub, sap, or sandbag.

So I don't really see how an "altered" bat fits under this Code, and the only alterations the rest of Sect. 12020 addresses is the alteration of shotguns, rifles, zip guns and ammunition magazines. Still - and maybe this is just my sick sense of humor from working in Crim Law too much - I'm amused by the thought of some dude getting a year added to his drug possession charge because he was attempting to protect his stash with a corked bat. I think they should have just given him a suspension...