One University athletic trainer began making wooden baseball bats for his son in his backyard shed and now, four years later, sells bats to Major League Baseball players like Sammy Sosa and as souvenirs to celebrities like Tim McGraw.
Jack Marucci, University director of athletic training, started making bats for his Little League baseball playing son Gino in 2002 before turning his hobby into a thriving business.
“My younger boy wanted a wooden bat, and I couldn’t find anyone to make the small bats, so I made one myself,” Marucci said.
Marucci said he would bring his creations into the training room where former LSU quarterback and baseball player Matt Mauck would “look them over.”
Within weeks of making his first bat, Marucci was making final arrangements to attend a trainer’s convention in St. Louis when he called Eduardo Perez, a St. Louis Cardinals player he worked with at Florida State University.
Perez told Marucci to bring him a few of his bats, so Marucci met up with Perez at a St. Louis hotel where he traded them for some tickets to a Cardinals game.
Marucci, a Pittsburgh native, said while he was sitting in the stands at the game, he was shocked when his friend Perez stepped to the plate using one of the bats Marucci made in his cramped 8-by-10 backyard shed.
Marucci said he couldn’t believe it when he looked down to see the bat Perez was taking practice swings with had his signature “M” emblem on it.
“I had never even seen an adult use them,” Marucci said. “I thought the thing might blow up.”
Perez ended up grounding out, but the bats “took off by word of mouth,” said Marucci.
Marucci said “we finally got licensed,” and that’s when he partnered with former Tiger baseball players Kurt Ainsworth and Jay Lawrence.
Since then, Marucci Bat Company has been growing beyond Marucci’s expectations.
“We probably have close to 15 to 18 players right now,” Marucci said.
Major League players such as Sammy Sosa, Mike Piazza and David Dellucci now use Marucci bats.
Ryan Theriot, a former Tiger player drafted to the Chicago Cubs in 2001, has been using the bats for two seasons.
“They’re good bats,” Theriot told The Daily Reveille. “They put out a good product.”
Theriot told The Daily Reveille that he started using the bats because he was “buddies with Jack, the owner,” and he knows Ainsworth and Lawrence as well.
“[The company] is relatively small so the quality can stay at a good level,” Theriot said.
Theriot said another reason he uses the Marucci bats is because he has quick access to them.
“I can get them pretty quick,” Theriot said. “I can call them and have a dozen bats within a week, and that’s important to me.”
Marucci said he also sells many bats, which range from $75-$110, as souvenir gifts to celebrities like McGraw, Andy Reed and Jim Brown.
“I’ve moved a lot of it out of my backyard,” Marucci said. “We have a little shop out there on Siegen.”
Marucci said former Tiger baseball players Victor Brumfield and Kyle Ourso make a lot of the bats now.
“It originally took six hours to make one,” Marucci said. “Now, it’s about an hour to an hour and a half per bat.”
Though Marucci said he “hasn’t made a dime” from the company, he said, “It’s just a fun deal.”
Some have said the use of Marucci bats helped break the Red Sox’s 86-year “curse.”
The Red Sox traded Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees in 1920 and until 2004, the Red Sox had not won the World Series in what has been called “the Curse of the Bambino.”
When Red Sox shortstop Orlando Cabrera batted in the 2004 World Series, he used a Marucci bat.
As for what Theriot thinks about that theory, he said, “I don’t believe any of that.”
 
 
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