Awesome idea, can’t wait to see some pics of the finished bar. I too just started my first bar project and am using a modified version of the 8ft bar plan. I bought all the framing lumber and cut everything to size this past weekend, and plan on finishing the fraiming this weekend. Once that is complete, I will be working on picking out the finishing wood I want to use.
I’m really interested to see how the baseball bat idea works out with your bar (being a baseball fan myself)