Kyle Drone was working for the West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx of the Southern League as a bullpen catcher. He heard some complaints from some of the players, and thought that with the help of his father, he could remedy the situation.

So in April of 2002, Kyle and his father, Randy, started on a little business venture. Five years later, Dinger Bats is alive and well in this small Gallatin County town.

"He kept mentioning it to me about going into the bat business," Randy said of Kyle. "We just bought a lathe and started at it."

The first year, the Drones made about 300 bats.

"It was on the hand lathe," Randy said. "That was kind of a slow deal. We can make more in an hour now than we could in a whole day."

Kyle said the business got a shot in the arm about 10 months into the operation. Dinger signed a contract with 100-year-old Worth Sports to produce wooden bats for the company.



"They are actually the company that invented the first aluminum bat," Kyle said. "As......