When Jack Marucci was still making baseball bats in the gray shed behind his house, there would be days he would step out and find neighborhood children gathered with his son, Gino.

Marucci would be holding a freshly carved bat with a lacquered, glistening finish. "The next time you see this bat," he told the kids, "it is going to be on TV, maybe in the World Series."

Then he made their day. "Go ahead, swing it, try it out before Barry Larkin."

The next week, Marucci might step out with a bat made for a rising minor league star, Ryan Howard.

It was a hobby at first for Marucci, as well as a release from his job as LSU's director of athletic training. He made bats in that shed from 2002-05, precursor to the Marucci Bat Co.
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It started when Gino was 7 and asked his dad for a wood bat with his name on it. So Marucci bought a lathe for $80 and carved his son a......