You might think that creating baseball bats is easy. It can’t be that bad, right? Cut wood, shape wood, paint wood…tah dah! You have a baseball bat!
Of course, it’s not that simple. There’s so much that goes into making bats, from choosing the correct type of wood, to shaping the wood in the proper way, to making sure it meets the specifications that the client wants.
Former MLB pitcher Brett Laxton now makes bats for a living, and he was featured creating bats in the 1 in One Hundred Million web series, which spotlights members of the American workforce that may get overlooked on a daily basis.
https://youtu.be/nAokBgvoFck
The whole series, and Laxton’s episode in particular, is compelling. You can watch the other episodes at the 1 in One Hundred Million site, and also subscribe to be informed about future episodes. It gives viewers a broad look at what these people do on a daily basis that we may be clueless about.
One episode features a man named Nicco, who works at the front desk during the night shift at a hotel, discussing the tremendous amount of responsibilities on a daily basis. Another episode features Leonel, a produce manager that does more with fruits and vegetables on the clock than I ever could have imagined.
In Laxton’s episode, he details how he used to hate hitters when he was a major league pitcher, but has grown to feel the opposite in his post-playing career. Laxton works for Marucci, who supplies bats to Jose Bautista, Albert Pujols, and Jose Reyes, among many others, and many of his clients have no idea that he used to be a pro baseball player like them.
The process of creating bats is incredibly in-depth – they’re cut, hand-sanded, finished, and laser engraved before they’re ready to go. There are also bats that are not made of wood, like fastpitch Demarini bats , which are made of an alloy or composite material. It’s an incredibly thorough, underappreciated process that should receive more attention.
There are plenty of people out there like Laxton who once had huge dreams that are now flying under the radar, yet still doing rewarding, important work. And for that matter, there are plenty of people out there like Nicco and Leonel, who excel at their work that effects plenty of people on a daily basis. I think it’s pretty great to spotlight the jobs they’re doing so well and giving them some attention. You don’t need to have a 98mph fastball or 30 homer power to be important in today’s society.
