This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human. Ready to feel energized and in control again? At Orderly Meds, we have helped thousands just like you take charge of their health with a GLP-1. If you've tried dieting, exercising, and relying on willpower, and nothing seems to stick, then it might be time to talk to a licensed provider about your options.
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This is Cheekies from Soul Searching with Cheekies.
Okay, we're just going to make a quick stop, girl. That is literally the biggest lie I tell myself. Because one quick stop turns into picking up tu gente, grabbing snacks, loading up everybody's stuff, y de repente andamos en una aventura. Y es que a veces the best adventures are the ones that you make up along the way. That's why the 2026 Nissan Rogue is ready for wherever the day takes you.
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Tickets are on sale now. Don't miss out on this one-of-a-kind live event. Hello, everyone, and welcome to Rushing the Field. I'm Nicole Hourback, and I'm Joshua Perry. We're so excited to be here to chat about our favorite thing in the entire world: college football.
From the biggest headlines and breaking news to the stories shaping the sport behind the scenes, Rushing the Field is your home for everything college football. Whether you're obsessed with rankings, rivalries, or game day drama, we've got you covered. Watch Rushing the Field on NBC Sports now. This is Lee Habib, and this is our American Stories. October is Italian American Heritage Month, and all month long, we're celebrating the Italian Americans who helped shape our nation from Columbus to Capra.
Up next, Jack Marucci's story. Jack is the director of performance at Louisiana State University's athletic department, and he's also the founder of Marucci Sports, a company known for making some of the finest baseball bats in the world. But the story of Marucci Sports begins not in a boardroom, but in a garage. Here's Jack with his story. You know, we're from a coal mining town.
Pretty humble beginnings. We're from a pretty immigrant family. My mom was 11 when she came from Spain, and my grandfather's from Italy.
So we're half Spanish, half Italian. But and that was the makeup of most of the people we grew up with. Everybody was pretty ethnic, and you know we went to the Italian church and St. Teresa's. We thought that's how it was everywhere.
So my mom. Her dad came over to be a coal miner, and we went back to see her where she grew up. It was like it was like San Diego. I'm going, why would your dad leave this place? They lived right by the ocean, but I guess times were so bad.
There's civil war, the economy was bad, and the war's breaking out. This was like in the early '40s. But her dad comes over here. Right before the war, and he's trying to save money, bring the family up, but he can't get back and forth.
So my mom didn't see him until 11 years, till he could save up the money.
So she was 11 the first time she saw her dad. Then my dad's side, my my grandfather came over when he was 15. Then he got deported because he had to be 16. You can see it on the Ellis Island report. We we found it somehow.
He got through all that, and they said, "Well, you're only 15." So he had to go all the way back. You know, they were afraid he was afraid they were going to make him a priest. He didn't want to become a priest, so he started a restaurant. It was called Shady Side Inn. It was built from nothing.
It was just a little deli, and they built it into a place where banquets could seat up to six, seven hundred people. I mean, it just kept growing. You know, it was the same thing. That's when I first probably came across the first professional athletes because we used to check coats. Me and my brother, we're like ten years old, and you are checking coats, man.
And they're giving you these big coats, and we'd stay up late, and we're so tired. But first time Willie Stargell came in, you know, with the Pittsburgh Pirates, and we saw his coat, and we're going, "Hey, let's check in his pockets." We weren't looking for money. But we found a business card with the Willie Stargell star. We thought, you know, you know.
So we used to get tips. You know, it'd give you a buck. You know, you could make. If it's a hundred coats, you're making a hundred bucks. You know, you split it.
That's fifty bucks each. Not bad. For a ten-year-old, my dad ended up being a butcher. My dad did the bartending.
So we came up. Pretty much, you know, we had the one shower in the house. All three boys slept in one room, then then my sister.
So, you know, it teaches you a good work ethic. Obviously, Western Pennsylvania is an area that that's blue collar, and you know, you're going to learn things that you don't think it's going to pay off down the road. You know, you take that typing class back then, and now everything's computers. You learn how to type, then you take a woodshop class. That you learn how to use a wood lathe, you know, which down the road would become a you know something that I could learn to to use to my advantage and you know help develop a bet for my son.
You never know what's going to influence you.
So my son was he's about seven eight years old, Gino, and we're watching. We used to watch a lot of baseball and. I didn't play old videos of Roberto Clemente, so that became his guy. He wears twenty-one today. He wore it as a little league.
He got back into twenty-one because of Roberto Clemente.
So again, Western Pennsylvania, we're a little bit obsessed, of course. We're going to force them to like the Pirates and the Steelers and the Penguins.
So that's just part of what we do. And he he liked Bonds' bat. He saw the black and the two-tone and wood bat. He goes, "Dad, I like that man. I want to play with a wood bat." That's different because wood bats weren't even mentioned back then.
Now you got wood bat tournaments and everyone likes the wood bat.
So I end up calling all these bat companies. None of them—they all had stock bats. None of them were small enough or short enough. Really, it was really the size. Everybody maybe was an inch off.
I needed a twenty-seven. They only stopped at twenty-nine or they stopped at twenty-eight.
So I started. Looking around, and there were some old bats stored here at LSU. I'm looking at them, and I said, "All right." Then we had a quarterback, Matt Mock. I started talking to Matt. Matt played for the Cubs for three years, and I said, "Matt, I'm thinking about making a bat for my son.
You mind if I I'm going to make one, and I want I'm going to bring it in. Since you played, tell me what we need to do to to make this thing tapered right." So I made the first one. I have it in my office. Today, and top heavy, and you know I use electrical tape to to do whatever, and I I carved in, I think that one was the Geno Crusher, so then I put his school he was at, that was my first one.
So the next one I start making, I got a lot better. That was the Geno Slugger, was I think the next one, you know.
So he starts hitting with them, and and he. He had the the DNA to hit. You know, he had the good eyesight. He was a front eye dominant kid, and and he was he was pretty good.
So he starts getting in little league. He's using a wood bat.
Okay, this is different, but he's he's one of the best hitters.
So everybody on the team goes, "Well, if he's hitting good with that bat, I want one with my name, my kid's name on it." So that's when I formed.
Okay, I want we'll form a little company, Marucci Bat Company.
So I bought a shed. I bought it from Canada. It was a cedar shed, and I told the guy what I wanted because I thought cedar is going to last longer in this weather—the mildew, the you know—it's not going to rot. I said I want doors in the front and the back. He goes, "Why you want that?" I said, "Have you ever lived in Louisiana?
It's like living on the equator." I said, "I need airflow." So I put a fan in there, and that was my bat shop. That was 2002. I always joke around. I said saving was a little stressful, so it was a nice stress relief to get it away.
So after football, I'd spend nights, and the neighbor'd come over. Go, what are you doing? There's sawdust everywhere. I go, I'm making bats. He goes, you're making bats.
He goes, give me a couple. You know, everyone, as soon as they saw it, they go, I want one.
So I started 25 bucks. I mean, the wood cost probably fifteen, because money was never a thing. I felt bad. I felt bad that I was getting charged somebody for it. Then I said, "Well, I better start charging," because you know.
The first major league bat was Eduardo Perez. I was going up for an athletic trainers convention, and we're catching up, and I was going to go the Cardinals game. And I told him what I was doing. He goes, he goes, bring me one up. And he gave me a model, which was a common model.
Everything was based off a Louisville Slugger model. It's C243. I said, all right. I think I can find one in the pile because LSU had some wood bats laying around. And I found one that I.
So I got the hanger and I, I would hang it on the hanger and I would do it by feel. I would cut the bat. And I got pretty good by that, by eye and feel.
So I, I made him. I think I made him two. And thinking, what's he going to do with these? Maybe he's just going to put it up in his house. Or I thought it was neat that a major league guy, you know, you know.
So he meets me in front of the hotel, and he and he pulls out the box, and his eyes light up. And he goes, "Man!" He goes, "I'm going to use this tonight." I said, "What?" I said, "This thing's going to explode, Eddie." I said, "I've seen seven and eight-year-olds swing this." I said, "You're going to swing this." This thing, I said. He goes, "I'm going to sneak it in because I wasn't licensed." You know, the logo is this big logo. Yeah, there's all these regulations which you find out. And he goes, "I tell you what, I want you to come down for batting practice, meet some guys." I said, "Okay." And you've been listening to Jack Marucci tell the story of how his bat company came to be, the child of immigrants who came from Spain and Italy.
What happens next? More of Jack Marucci's story here on Our American Stories. If you're ready to feel confident again, visit orderlymeds.com to learn about which GLP-1 you may be eligible for. Getting started is fast, easy, and happens virtually through telemedicine from licensed professionals. Gain confidence, choose healthy habits this fall.
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If you've never been to a Power Slap event, now is your chance to see one of the most exciting live sporting events on the planet. Power Slap tickets in Las Vegas start at sixty dollars and can be purchased on Ticketmaster or PowerSlap.com. That's Friday, October ninth, in Las Vegas at the Cosmopolitan. Tickets are on sale now. Don't miss out on this one-of-a-kind live event.
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Rushing the Field. I'm Nicole Auerbach. And I'm Joshua Perry. We're so excited to be here to chat about our favorite thing in the entire world: college football. From the biggest headlines and breaking news to the stories shaping the sport behind the scenes, Rushing the Field is your home for everything college football.
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And see you way insured. And we continue with our American stories, and with the story of Jack Marucci. And if you're a ball player, a baseball player, that is the story of Marucci Bats, who came on to challenge the almighty Louisville Slugger. And from a shack in his home in Louisiana, so he gets me down there and he goes, "This bat is unbelievable." He goes, "I use it in the cage." Then he introduces me to Barry Larkin. He's playing for the Reds, and I got a picture of Larkin holding this bat.
He says, "I tell you what, we're playing in Houston. I want you to make me one." I said, "All right, I'll make you one." So me and my son go to Houston, and he says, "Get there early for batting practice. He wants you to bring the bat." So I'm walking in the stadium with a bat. I gave it to my son. I go, "Here, Gina, you take it." He was only nine at the time, and I said, "They won't yell at you." I said, "I'm not going to bring a bat in the stadium." So he's bringing it in, and we walk all the way down.
They're taking batting practice, and there's people around in the stands. I don't know what to do. This is the first time you know I've done this. Actually, brought a bat to a game, and Larkin kind of sees us. He gives us thumbs up, and everyone behind us is going, "Oh." That's funny he recognizes.
You know they're they're all like amazed that, because they're all trying to get autographs and there's people everywhere. Borin stands with everybody else right behind the dugout.
So the bat boy comes over, we hand the bat over to him. Everyone's going, wow, how's he getting him to sign that bat? They're all going, how's he getting a sign? We're trying to get all of our. They're kind of getting mad.
So the bat boy takes it right over to Larkin. Larkin starts putting on the called a motor stick, the tackiness and like pine tar it up. And everyone starts going. Wait a minute, he's going to hit with that bat. I mean, we just brought it to him.
It's a bare bat. He starts taking BP with it.
So we're watching the game. His second at bat, he was the first guy to get a hit with it up the middle. That's Big Tuna. And to me, I said that was it. I mean, this thing was in my backyard a couple days ago, and this guy's using a major league baseball.
I said, Oh my God. I mean, this is ridiculous. That was probably one of the best ever, and it's probably one of the best moments ever. And Eduardo Perez, I can't say enough good things about him. He's one of the best human beings.
He helped the company more than anybody because he talked to all these players, and he's showing them, and I'm sending them more bats, and he sneak him in a game, and he's leaving me voicemails. Man, I hit a línea against Nomo, and I mean it was just the excitement of it was like contraband. You know, we're sending contraband up there, and he goes, "You're going to get a call from Manny Ramirez." I said, "Okay." So I get a call from Manny Ramirez. He goes, "I need some bats for the playoff run." I go, "Again, you're going to be in the playoffs. You can't use these bats." He goes, "No, he wants them." I talked to him about it.
He saw mine. I said okay.
So Manny calls. I said, "Well, Manny, we're about to take off. We're about to play Georgia, so we're getting on a flight." And I'm cutting them off. And I said, "Let me get back, and I'll cut them." So I spent three nights making bats. I made three bats for him, and I said, "Maybe, maybe we'll use them for batting practice or whatever.
I don't know." So I put a model number on it. It's called a CB twenty-four, and I send it up to him. And Kevin Millar saw him. He got all excited about him.
So this is 2004, and I got pretty good by then, making them. The finish I was hand doing everything, putting a nice. I mean, it looked shiny. It looked like furniture. That's what Eduardo Nunez said.
It looks like furniture.
So fast forward a couple years ago, I saw Orlando Cabrera on that same team. And why he's significant? I'm watching the game, and Orlando Cabrera is using these bats in this playoff game.
So I asked him. I never talked to Orlando about it. He used Manny's bats. I said. I said, weren't you afraid you're gonna get in trouble?
He goes, No. He goes, Let me tell you something. I hit like 370 in that series, and those bats, that ball was coming off. He goes, I remember like it was yesterday.
So this was two years ago. I'm talking to him about that 2004 playoff. And he goes, I remember those bats like it was yesterday. He goes, you know, we put the tape on the bottom, kind of flared out. The other one, I, he goes, I wanted a little thinner handle, so I got the Tringer scissors and I shaved the handle down, made it thinner.
And he goes, I always wanted to know. I didn't know what company it was. I wanted to order more, but never heard of it. I didn't even know what this was. And he goes, that model number, that CB.
I said, well, let me tell you something.
Somebody gave me a tip about five, six months after that. Series, they were on eBay. I found two of them. I said I have them in my office. I bought them back.
I didn't tell who I was. I had those two bats that you hit with in the playoffs. You know, you never know how they get out of the clubhouse. I said, you know what the CB stood for? He goes, no.
I said, Curse Buster. I put CB to break the. I said I put the Curse Buster of the Yankees, and that's when the Red Sox were down three games and they came back and they won the World Series. And I have those bats in my office. It's just it's one of those things you just never know.
You know it start getting bigger the business. I always wanted to order small mounts because I had to cut them at the time, and I was getting tendonitis. I I swear to I got bad. This is the first time I had epicondylitis, and and and then then we got more automated obviously, but we we were trying to turn down business and people wanted them. The next big player would be Carlos Beltran.
Carlos Beltran, and we end up having the whole Met team from Jose Reyes, Beltran, Laduka, you name it, David Wright, and all those people in a division saw those bats. Those guys were hitting well. He would tell everybody that these bats are unbelievable.
So at the time, you know, he goes, he ordered a half dozen.
So he orders the bats. We ship them out, and I get a phone call from him. Jack, you only sent me five bats. I ordered six. I said I know.
He goes, What do you mean you know? I said, Do you understand that I was trying to get you the six bat? I cut like ten to twelve bats. They weren't the quality I wanted. In silence, he goes, That is unbelievable.
So he goes, You're not. You don't make like batting practice bats. You just don't fill it. No. What do you mean batting practice bats?
I'm not going to mention companies, but it was Louisville and Rawlings, basically. That was it. I mean, there was other companies, Cooper companies that he was using. Says, you know, I only could get. He's going to use four to five bats out of the dozen.
He thought the other ones were subpar. That's how he did it.
So being naive and thinking I'm just going to give you the best quality, and he loved it. It was the right thing to do to make it look right. You know, the paint was going to look good. The detail, the stamping, and the knob. You know, I would I would stamp in the player's number, stamp in so all that detail was in there when it was made, like a board on.
I mean, no one had that. Everyone was just mass producing bats. You know, these guys, that's their living. You know, Albert once told me, goes, you know, I love a lot of things in life. You know, I love my wife.
You know, I love my bats. Love my kids. Maybe not sometimes in that order, but you know, he was joking because their bats are livelihood.
So, no one was making bats like that for these guys. You would think they would be. He coined the frame. Every bat's a gamer.
So every bat's a gamer. Yeah.
So I always told people, you know, we were always chasing the quality. You're not going to chase the dollar. You're not going to chase that money. Chase the quality. The stuff will come.
So that spread like wildfire.
So the word of mouth was so powerful. And baseball is a close knit community. And That's where that that really took to another level. We became the number one bat company probably about two and a half years ago. We passed Louisville Slugger, and by a pretty large margin now.
But you know, you're in sport, and probably one of the best things that you do here all the time. It is a game of inches, and if those companies made that bat one inch longer. I wouldn't have probably made bats because I they would have made a bat for my son and I would have been it, but one inch dictated to do something and you know it's it's and it's you think about this also it's the last sport that has used a wooden instrument golf has gotten away from wood lacrosse. Tennis used to use tennis wood rackets. Hockey had, you know, so the purity of it allowed somebody to to do what we were able to do, and it's created jobs, probably over close to 100 jobs, 80 jobs for people, you know, just because of a woodshop class.
So you know, there's there's a lot the That humbles you if you look at that stuff. You know, you can go to an airport, and you know, there was a little kid. I was flying back from home from Pennsylvania, and I was layover in in Charlotte Airport, and the kid had the the name on his his shirt, and he had the bag, and he was sitting next to me at the we were waiting. I said. I said those bats aren't any good.
Why are you wearing those bats? I said Louisville's a lot better. And he's getting all mad at me. And he's getting mad. I said I said I can't even pronounce that name.
I said I I wouldn't use that stuff. I said Louisville's much better. And his grand he was there flying with his grandpa his grandfather. Says no he he loves those bats and you know so I found out they're coming they were coming down for a baseball camp at LSU you know so. And so I shared the story with them, and I had them come over to the office and show them all this stuff.
It was, it was, it was pretty fun. The story of Jack Marucci and Marucci Sports, celebrating Italian American heritage all month long, here on Our American Stories. Ready to feel energized and in control again? At Orderly Meds, we have helped thousands just like you take charge of their health with a GLP-1. If you've tried dieting, exercising, and relying on willpower, and nothing seems to stick, then it might be time to talk to a licensed provider about your options.
That's what Orderly Meds is for. This fall, choose healthier habits for yourself with a visit to orderlymeds.com. You don't need to. Visit with a physician in person to become eligible. Orderly Meds has a simple virtual process.
Connect with licensed medical professionals who can determine whether a GLP-1 treatment may be appropriate for you wherever you are. Get started from the comfort of home online. Change your habits and consider a new approach to feeling your best. Visit OrderlyMeds.com to learn more. That's OrderlyMeds.com.
OrderlyMeds.com. Gain confidence and choose better habits. Fall compounded medications are not FDA approved. Eligibility required and determined by a licensed provider. Individual results may vary.
See website for details. Power Slab Twenty Four arrives in Las Vegas on Friday, October ninth at the Chelsea Theater at the Cosmopolitan. If you've never been to a Power Slap event, now is your chance to see one of the most exciting live sporting events on the planet. Power Slap tickets in Las Vegas start at sixty dollars and can be purchased on Ticketmaster or PowerSlap dot com. That's Friday, October ninth in Las Vegas at the Cosmopolitan.
Tickets are on sale now. Don't miss out on this one of a kind live event. Hello, everyone, and welcome to Rushing the Field. I'm Nicole Auerbach. And I'm Joshua Perry.
We're so excited to be here to chat about our favorite thing in the entire world—college football. From the biggest headlines and breaking news to the stories shaping the sport behind the scenes, Rushing the Field is your home for everything college football. Whether you're obsessed with rankings, rivalries, or game day drama, we've got you covered. Watch Rushing the Field on NBC Sports now. Upgrade to Elite Checking from America's Christian Credit Union and earn up to 3.5% APY, plus everyday perks and access to your paycheck up to two days early with Early Pay.
Don't settle. Choose checking that rewards you and aligns with your values. Visit America's ChristianCU dot com forward slash iHeart. Minimum balance of one cent required to earn advertised APY. Early pay not guaranteed.
APY equals annual percentage yield. Membership eligibility required. NCUA insured. This is Jacob Goldstein from What's Your Problem. Running a business is hard enough.
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