The B-25 In The Backyard

And we returned to our American Stories. Up next, a story from Jack Marucci. Jack is the Director of Performance in Louisiana State University’s Athletic Department, but also the founder of Marucci Sports, a company known for its baseball bat. Here’s Jack with a story of how his company came to be. Let’s get into it.

You know, we’re from a coal mining town, pretty humble beginnings. We’re from a pretty immigrant family. My mom was eleven when she came from Spain, and my grandfather’s from Italy. So we’re half Spanish, half Italian, and that was the makeup of most of the people we grew up with. Everybody was pretty ethnic, you know. We went to the Italian church and Saint Teresa’s. We thought that’s how it was everywhere. So my mom—her dad came over to be a coal miner, and we went back to see her where she grew up. It was like it was like San Diego. I’m going, why would you day leave this place? They lived right by the ocean, but I guess times are so bad. They had a civil war, the economy was bad, and the war’s breaking out. This was like in the early forties. But her dad comes over here right before the war, and he tried to say money, bring the family up, but he can’t get back and forth. So my mom didn’t see him until eleven years, until we could save up the money. So she was eleven the first time she saw her dad. Then my dad’s side, my grandfather came over when he was fifteen. Then he got deported because you had to be sixteen. You can see it on the Ellis Island report. We found it. Somehow he got through all that, and they said, “Well, you’re only fifteen.” So he had to go all the way back. You know, they were afraid. He was afraid they were gonna make him a priest. Want to become a priest, so he started a restaurant. It was called Shady Side End. It was built from nothing. It was just a little deli, and they built into a place where bank whis could set up to six, seven hundred people. I mean, it just kept growing, you know. It was the same thing. And that’s when I first probably came across the first professional ethics because we used to check coats. Me and my brother, we’re like ten years old, and you’re checking coats, man, and they’re giving you these big coats, and which stay up late, and we’re so tired. But that’s the first time my Willy Stargel came in, you know, with the Pittsburgh Pirates, and we saw his coat, and we’re going, “Hey, let’s check in his pockets.” We weren’t looking for money, but we found a business card with the Willis Stargels’ star. We thought, you know, you know. So we used to get tips. You know, they’d give you a buck. You know, you could make, if it’s one hundred coats, you’re making a hundred bucks, you know, you split it. It’s fifty bucks each. It’s not bad for a ten-year-old. My dad ended up being the butcher, did did the bartending. So we came up pretty much. You know. We had the one shower in the house. All three boys slept in the one room. Then then my sister. So, you know, it teaches you a good work ethic. Obviously, Western Pennsylvania is an area that it’s a blue collar, and you know, you’re gonna learn things that you don’t think it’s going to pay off down the road. You know, you take that typing class back then, and now everything’s computers. You learn how to type. Then you take a wood-lathe class that you learn how to use a wood-lathe, you know, which down the road would become a, you know, something that I could learn to to use to my advantage and, uh, you know, help develop a bet for my son. You never know what’s going to influence you. So my son was—he’s about seventy years old, Geno—and we’re watching. We used to watch a lot of baseball, and I didn’t play old videos. Roberto Clemny. So that became his guy, and he wors twenty-one today. He wore was a Little League. He got back into twenty-one because of Berto Kalmni. So again, Western Pennsylvania were a little bit obsessed, of course, and we’re gonna force them to liket the Pirates and the Steelers and the Penguins. So that’s just part of what we do. And he he liked Bonds’ as bat. He saw the black and two tone, and Batty goes, “Dad, I like that, man, I wanna play with a wood bat.” That’s different because wood bats weren’t even mentioned back then. Now you got wood bat tournaments, and everyone likes the wood bat. So I end up calling all these bat companies, none of them—they all had stock bats no more small enough or short enough. Really, it was really the size. Everybody maybe was an inch off. I needed a twenty-seven, and they only stopped at twenty-nine, or they stopped at twenty-eight. So I started looking around, and there was some old bats store here at LSU. I’m looking at him, and he said, “All right.” Then we had a quarterback, Matt ma. I start talking to Matt. Matt played for the Cubs for three years, and, uh, I said, “Matt, I’m thinking about making him back for my son. You mind if I’m gonna make one, and I want I’m gonna bring it in since you played, tell me what we need to do to make this thing tapered right?” And so I made the first one. I have it in my office today, and, uh, it top heavy, and, you know, I use electrical tape to to do whatever. And I carved in. I think that one was the Geno Crusher, and I put his school he was at. That was my first one. So the next one I start making, I got a lot better. And that was the Geno Slugger was, I think, the next. You know. So he starts hitting with him, and, uh, and he he had the DNA to hit. You know, he had the good eyesight. He was a front-eyed, dominant kid, and he was he was pretty good. So he starts getting a little league. He’s using a wood back. Okay, this is different, but he’s he’s one of the best hitters. So everybody on the team goes, “Well, if he’s hitting good with that bat, I want one with my name, my kid’s name on it.” So that’s when I formed, “Okay, I want, we’ll form a little company, Merchy Bat Company.” So I bought a shed. I bought it from Canada. It was a cedar shed, and I told the guy what I wanted because I thought cedar’s gonna last longer in this weather: the mildew, the, you know, it’s not gonna rot. I said, “I want doors in the front, in the back.” And he goes, “Why do you want that?” I said, “Have you ever lived in Louisiana?” I said, “It’s like living on the equator.” I said, “I need an airflow.” So I put a fan in there. And that was my bat shop. That was 2002. I always joke around. I said, “Saban was a little stressful, so it was a nice stress relief to get away from.” So after football, I’d spend nights, and the neighbor come over. “What are you doing? There’s saldust everywhere.” I go, “Make him back. You’re making bats.” He goes, “Give me a…” You know, everyone, as soon as they saw it, and they go, “I want one.” So I started twenty-five bucks. I remember the wood cost polye fifteen. Because money was never a thing. I felt bad. I felt bad that I was going to even charge somebody for it. Then I said, “Well, I’d better start charging,” because, you know, the first major league bat was Eduardo Perez. I was going up for an athletic trainer’s convention, and we’re catching up, and I was gonna go to the Cardinals game, and I told him what I was doing. He goes, he goes, “Bring me one up,” and he gave me a model, which was a common model. Everything was based off of Louisville Slugger model.

Speaker 1: So, C.

Speaker 2: 243. He said, “All right,” I think I can find one in the pile because LSU had some wood bats laying around, and I found one that I. So I got the hanger, and I would hang it on the phil, and I would do it by phil. I would cut the bat. Now I got pretty good by the bye. Aye, I’d feel. I made him. I think I made him two. And think, “What’s he going to do with these? Maybe just gonna put it up in his house?” Or I thought it was a neat than a major-league guy, you know. So he meets me in front of the hotel, and he, and he pulls out the box, and his eyes light up, and he goes, “Man!” He goes, “I’m going to use this tonight.” I said, “What?” I said, “This thing’s going to explode, Eddie!” I said, “I seen seven and eight year old swing this!” I said, “You’re going to swing this this thing,” I said. He goes, “I’m gonna sneak it in because I want license.” You know, the logos, this big logo. There’s all these regulations which you find out, and, uh, he goes, “I tell you what. I want you to come down for batting practice, meet some guys.” I said, “Okay.”

Speaker 1: And you’ve been listening to Jack Marucci tell the story of how his bat company came to be: the child of immigrants who came from Spain and Italy and who basically learned the lessons of life in a working-class town in Western Pennsylvania, finds himself at Louisiana State University being the strength coach back when a guy named Nick Saban was coaching their SEC powerhouse squad, and to balt it just get some time away. He just started making bats, first for his son, and pretty soon from major-league baseball player. What happens next? More of Jack Marucci’s story here on our American Stories, and we continue with our American Stories and with the story of Jack Marucci, and if you’re a ballplayer—a baseball player, that is—the story of Marucci bats who came on to challenge the almighty Louisville Slugger and from a shack in his home in Louisiana.

Speaker 2: So he gets me down there, and he goes, “This bat is unbelievable because I use it in the cave.” Then he introduces me to Barry Larkin. He’s playing for the Reds, and I got a picture of Larkin. “Hold this bat.” And he says, “I tell you what, we’re playing in Houston. I want you to make any one.” I said, “All right, I’ll like you one.” So me and my son go to Houston, and he says, “Get there early for batting practice. He wants you to bring them back.” So I’m walking in the stadium with a bat. I gave it to my son. I go, “Here, Genna, you take it.” He was only nine at the time, and I said, “They won’t yell at you.” I said, “I’m not going to bring a bat in the stadium.” So he’s bringing it in, and we walk all the way down. They’re taking batting practice, and there’s people around in the stands. I don’t know what to do this first time, you know, I’ve done this. I actually brought a bat to a game. And Larkin kind of sees us. He gives his thumbs up, and everyone behind us is going, “Oh, that’s funny. He recognize.” You know. They’re all like a maze that because they’re all trying to get autographs, and there’s people everywhere. We’re gonna stands with their bells right behind the dug up. So the bat boy comes over. We hand a bat over to him. Everyone’s going, “Wow, how’s he getting him to sign that bat?” They’re are going, “How’s he getting a sign?” We’re trying to get all of our… They’re kind of getting mad. So the batboy takes it right over to Larkin. Larkin starts putting on the call of modus stick the tackiness and like pine tart up, and everyone starts going, “Wait a minute, he’s gonna hit with that bat!” I mean, we just brought it to him. It’s a bare bat. He starts taking bep with, so we’re watching the game. His second at bat, he was the first guy to get a hit with it up the middle. That’s big time. And to me, I said, “That was it!” I mean, I’m this thing was in my backyard a couple of days ago, and this guy’s ing a major-league baseballey. I said, “Oh my god, I mean, this is ridiculous!” That was probably one of the best ever, and it still probably one of the best moments ever. Prez. I can’t say enough good things about him. He’s one of the best human beings. He helped the company more than anybody because he talked to all these players, and he’s showing them, and I’m sending them more bats, and he’s sneaking in the game, and he’s leaving me voicemails. “Man, I hit Alina against Nomo!” And I mean, it was just the excitement of it. It was like contraband, you know, we’re sending contraband up there, and he goes, “You’re gonna get a call from Manny Ramirez.” I said, “Okay.” So I get a call from Manny Ramirez. He goes, “I need some bats for the playoff run.” I go, “Again, you’re gonna be in the playoffs? You can’t use these bats.” He goes, “No, he wants,” and I talked to him about it. He saw mine. I said, “Okay.” So Manny calls. I said, “Well, Manny, we’re about to take off. We’re about to play Georgia, and so we’re getting on a flight, and I’m cutting them off.” And I said, “Let me get back, and I’ll cut him.” So I spent three nights making bats. I made three bats for him, and I said, “Maybe maybe I’ll use him for batting practice or whatever. I don’t know.” So I put a model number on it. It’s called a CB24, and I send it up to him, and Kevin Millar saw him. He got all excited about him. So this is 2004, and I got pretty good by then making him, and the finish I was hand doing everything, putting a nice. I mean, it looked shiny, look like furniture. That’s what Edward O President all said, “It looks like furniture.” So fast forward a couple of years ago. I saw Orlando Cabrera on that same team, and why he’s significant: I’m watching the game, and Orlando Cabrera is using these bats in this playoff game. So I asked him. I never talked to Orlando about it. He used Manny’s bats I sent him. I said, “Weren’t you afraid you’re gonna get in trouble?” He goes, “No,” he goes, “Let me tell you something. I hit like 370 in that series, and those bats, that ball was coming off.” He goes, “I’m remember like it was yesterday.” So this was two years ago. I’m talking to about that 2004 playoff, and he goes, “I remember those bats like it was yesterday.” He goes, “You know, we put the tape on the bottom, kind of flared out.” And the other one, he goes, “I wanted a little thinner handle, so I got the trainer scissors and I shaved the handle down, made it thinner,” and he goes, “I always wanted to know. I didn’t know what company was. I wanted to order more, but never heard of it. I didn’t even know what this was.” And he goes that model number that CB. I said, “Well, let me tell you something. Somebody gave me a tip. About five, six months after that series, they were on eBay. I found two of them. I said, ‘I have him in my office.’ I bought him back. I didn’t tell them who I was. I had those two bats that you hit with in the playoffs.” You know, you never know how they get out of the clubhouse. I said, “You know what the CB stood for?” He goes, “No.” I said, “Cursebuster. I put CB to break the car.” I said, “I put the cursebuster of the Yankees.” And that’s when the Red Sox were down three games, and they came back, and they won the World Series. And I have those bats in my office. It’s just, it’s one of those things you just never know. You know, it’s start getting bigger, the business. I always want him to order small mouths because I had to cut them at the time, and I was getting tendonitis. I swear to, I got bad. This’s the first time I had epicondylitis. And then then we got more automated, obviously, but we were trying to turn down business, and people are one of them. The next big player would be Carlos Beltrán. Carlos Beltrán, and we end up having a whole Mets team from José Reyes, Beltrán, Laduca, you name it. David Wright, and all those people in the division saw those bats. Those guys were hitting well. He would tell everybody that these bats are unbelievable. So at the time, you know, he goes, he ordered a half dozen. So he orders the bats. We ship them out, and I get a phone call from Jack. “He only sent me five bats. I ordered six.” I said, “I know.” He goes, “What do you mean, you know?” I said, “Do you understand, and that I was trying to get you the six bat? I cut like ten to twelve bats. They weren’t the quality I wanted.” In silence, he goes, “That is unbelievable.” So he goes, “You’re not. You don’t make like batting practice bats. You just don’t feel it.” No, what do you mean batting practice bats? I’m not gonna mention companies, but it was Louisville and Rawlings, basically, I was it. I mean, there’s other companies, Cooper companies, that he was using. Says, “You know, I only could get he going to use four to five bats out of the dozen.” He felt the other ones were so far. That’s how he did it, so being naive and thinking, “I’m just gonna give you the best quality,” and he loved it. It was the right thing to do to make it look right. You know, there the paint was gonna look good, the detail, the stamping, and the knob. You know, I would I would stamp in the player’s number stamping, so all that detail was in there when it was made, like I’m born on it. I mean, no one had that. Everyone was just mass-producing bats. You know, these guys that’s are living. You know, Albert once told me, he goes, “You know, I love a lot of things in life. You know, I love my wife, you know I love my bats. I love my kids. Maybe not sometimes that order,” but, you know, you’re joking because their bats are livelihood. So no one was making bats like that for these guys. You would think they would be. He coined the frame, “Every bat’s a gamer.” So, “every bat’s a gamer.” Yeah. So I always told people, “You know, we were always chasing the quality.” And you’re not going to chase the dollar. You’re not gonna chase that money, chase the quality of the stuff will come. So that’s spread like wildfire. So the word of mouth was so powerful, and baseball is a close-knit community, and that’s where that that really took to another level. We became the number one bat company probably about two and a half years ago. That’s a pot slurner, and by a pretty large margin now. But, you know, you’re in sport, and probably one of the best things that you do here all the time. It is a game of inches. And if those companies made that bat one inch longer, I wouldn’t have probably made bats, because they would have made a bat for my son, and I would have been it. But one inch dictated to do something, and, and, uh, you know, it’s, it’s—and it’s—you think about this also: it’s the last sport that has used a wooden instrument. Golf has gotten away from wood, lacrosse, tennis used to use tennis wood rackets, hockey, and, you know, so the purity of it allowed somebody to to do what we were able to do. And it’s create.