'Holy Pujols, Bat Man!': Marucci Bats Clobber Big Leagues

(Aug. 23) -- "I saw 19 of the 24 guys swinging a Marucci and I said, 'Wait a minute, something is happening here. I need to be a part of this.'"

Reed Dickens was laughing recently when he recounted for AOL News about why he became CEO of Baton Rouge-based Marucci, a baseball bat company that has taken the game by storm.

The figures he was referring to were the number of major league all-stars last year in St. Louis swinging Maruccis. "Nineteen out of 24, " he repeated, still laughing. "You know how superstitious ballplayers are about their bats? I'm thinking, how do you get 19 all-stars to pick up the bat in the first place? So I just figured they had to be good, and I wanted to be a part of the team that will lead them into the future."

Jack Marucci seems equally taken aback. But when you look at how his company started, it's with good reason. After all, it was only in 2002 when Marucci, athletic director of Louisiana State University, got the request from his little leaguer son for a wooden bat.

Unable to find one that felt right in his son's hands (they were too big), the resourceful Marucci found a second-hand lathe. And in a shed, he crafted a baseball bat.

Like something out of a Hollywood movie, soon, other kids wanted bats like the young Marucci. After all, the kid was getting hits. Lots of hits. And any baseball player, child and pro alike, is interested in getting more hits.

The shed in the Marucci backyard became a sawdust palace as Marucci cranked out bat after bat. But it was a trip to St. Louis that gave Marucci his real break.

"I got one in the hands of Cardinal Eduardo Perez," the humble, soft-spoken southerner told AOL News. "And he liked it."

Then came Barry Larkin and several other well-known players. But nothing prepared Marucci for what happened next. "Albert Pujols was interested in a bat. So I cut him one myself. He went through a few, but soon, we figured out what worked best for him. He was happy, and so were we."

Today, three-time National League MVP Pujols is a Marucci guy. Just like Ryan Howard, David Wright, Chase Utley and about 300 other major leaguers. Players are not paid to play with the bats. They use them because they like them, plain and simple.
There are already a couple Marucci bats in the Hall of Fame (including the 2009 stick that Utley used to tie Reggie Jackson's World Series home run record).

All from a company that's just about 8 years old.

Another member of the Marucci team, former major league pitcher and Olympic team member Kurt Ainsworth, laughs hard like Dickens when he talks about the dent Marucci has made in the game. Not because he doesn't think they have the best bats, but because the company's almost overnight arc seems so absurd.

"I was there early on," Ainsworth told AOL News, "one of the original three. There in the trenches, making the bats, getting the bats in former teammates' hands. To watch guys walk away from bats they'd used their whole careers because of how much they loved Maruccis was insane. We could not make bats fast enough. We ran out of wood. People thought we were playing a sort of cat and mouse, but we literally ran out!"

Marucci has recently entered the youth leagues with aluminum bats (featuring their best-selling CAT-5, which boasts a patented anti-vibration technology). "We tour the country so kids can learn about our unique, all-American history, hold some famous game used bats and feel the Marucci power," Dickens said. "And of course, having Albert aboard, well, that makes a difference."
Pujols, that is.

"I see Albert Pujols swinging one of our bats and I feel like a kid myself," Marucci said. "It's like a dream. For my son, as well."

Marucci, who still oversees bat production, has not lost touch with what got him to the show in the first place. "You have to make the best bats with the best wood, that's all. Our maple and ash wood is supplied by Amish wood cutters up in Pennsylvania. It's the best."

They've since moved out of the shed and into a large facility, and someday they hope to give tours to fans.

For now though, Marucci would rather keep the distractions down and focus on making the best bats.

"I feel a little like Willy Wonka in there," he chuckled. "And I'll tell you this, when I'm watching Albert, or any one of our other guys out there at the plate, it's sort of liking watching your son. You want them to do their best and you feel a little responsible because you made that bat they're holding. We take that responsibility very seriously."

For years, the game has been all but defined by one southern bat company, an outfit in Louisville that, according to legend, started out when a youngster wanted his family to craft a bat in their woodworking shop for one of the teen's ball playing heroes.

Here's another southern company that was born when a youngster wanted a bat. Only this time, the hero was a dad who stepped up to the plate and made it himself.