Ben Linus: A Man, A Plan, A Baton

One of my anonymous readers just pointed out that we've seen Ben use his black baton before, which was great because I did not remember seeing it. Last season, he beat up Sawyer in the cage with it ("Every Man For Himself"). At the time, I remember thinking that it seemed odd for little Ben to have such strength against Sawyer, and now I'm almost sure that the instrument is far more than a simple baton.

Think about the next 3 times we see Ben use that thing..

He pummeled two Bedouins in Tunisia with it
("The Shape of Things to Come")

He had it in hand, ready to hit the doorman at Widmore's apartment if he ran into trouble
("The Shape of Things to Come")

He handed it over to Locke before sending him into the Orchid, which was surrounded by armed soldiers
("There's No Place Like Home, Part 1")

My point is that the baton represents additional, extraordinary strength. And as another reader said, there is obvious significance to literally passing the baton from Ben to Locke. The power on the island has now shifted.

[Sidenote: Two people today emailed to tell me that Ben's baton appeared in the very first scene of Lost, next to Jack in the jungle. I disagree and believe it be black bamboo, but it would be fascinating to ponder Jack's arrival on the island at that moment via time travel instead of Flight 815...]
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Thank you to the astute yet anonymous reader for stirring up this discussion with the posted comment - send me an email so I can give you proper credit!