Hanging on the wall, here in my home office, are two baseball bats. One is somewhat famous, the other nearly anonymous. As you can see, they straddle a framed copy of Baseball Magazine, from 1953, and the catcher in the cover photo is my father.

His bat hangs to the left, but it’s not just any Louisville Slugger and it’s not just any Del Wilber autographed model. This very bat is the one he used on August 27, 1951 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia, while playing against the Cincinnati Reds. On that very night, Big Del achieved something so outstanding we have named this charity in reference to his accomplishment. He came to bat three times, took three swings, and hit three solo home runs, accounting for all of the scoring in the Phillies’ 3-0 win over the Reds. It’s a special bat.

Big Del had his Louisville Slugger designed to fit his needs, and since the bat was specifically cut and weighted to his exact preference, Hillerich & Bradsby designated it as the W15 model.

The bat on the right is one of mine, and one of only two Bob Wilber autographed bats left on the planet. It’s a U1 model, originally designed for some other player, but at some point in my young career I picked one up and liked the feel of it. I therefore, for better or for worse, stuck with the U1 until my fleeting minor league career was over. I blame the U1.

It has a tapered handle, with no knob. That sort of style is usually the favorite of the choke-up slap hitter, but I took a full swing like a power hitter. My theory, passed along to me by many head-shaking coaches, was “Swing as hard as you can, in case you actually hit the ball.”

It has a relatively thick handle as well, and that again worked at cross-purposes with my intent. The thicker the handle, the slower you are able to get the bat head going. A thin handle allows the hands (and the bat head) to rotate more quickly, but a thin handle on a wood bat also creates one other byproduct. If you don’t hit the ball on the big part of the barrel, thin handles sting a lot more.

Since I did not have the quickest hands to begin with, I tended to get jammed every now and then (if, by “every now and then” you mean at least once a game) so the whole “handful of bees” thing was not high on my wish list. The thicker handle on the U1 protected me from the stings, but it probably slowed my bat down even a little further.

So why did I pick the U1 and continue to use it until no one would pay me to play anymore? Was it because it improved my chances for getting hits? Did it maximize my bat speed? Was it the right bat for me? No, no, and no. It just felt good. Back in the day, well before video training and high-tech coaching, two topics were consistently repeated with young players, and the advice was the same in both cases. For your stance, pick something that feels good. For your bat, pick something that feels good. Great stuff. Thanks for thinking outside the box, coaches!

Now, of course, we can visualize and test various stances, to improve any hitter’s chances for success. You still don’t want to be up there totally uncomfortable, but any good hitting coach can spot flaws that are going to make an improbable action (hitting a baseball) closer to impossible. Coaches work with players from Little League to the Major Leagues, finding flaws in their swings and stances. Good coaches make hitters better.

In terms of bats, little progress has really been made in terms of tailoring a bat to fit a swing, but I think coaches and players are a little more savvy when it comes to design. Back in the 1970s, when I was swinging my beloved U1, it just felt good.

The biggest problem we have now, in professional baseball, is the pervasive use of metal bats at every other level of the game. When my pro days were over and I began playing semi-pro ball for the Sauget Wizards, the first thing I noticed was how much faster my bat was, and how much more power I had, swinging an aluminum bat. I was one of the lone hold-outs to use wood in college, while everyone else was making the transition to metal, so my Wizards days marked the first time I’d been brought over and seduced by “the dark side” with a metal bat. The handle could be thin, the barrel could be huge, and the thing could still weigh no more than 31 ounces. Wooden bats couldn’t be made that way, because there wasn’t enough strength in the handle to manage the torque and whip of a big heavy barrel.

Now, we see bats shattering and breaking every night in the big leagues, as an entire generation of hitters have come to think a thin handle and thick barrel is the only way to go. After all, the metal bats they used as kids were all like that! Once in the pros, they still want that feel in a wooden bat, and what they get is a toothpick, ready to snap.

My U1 on the wall does have one thing going for it, and that’s why it’s there. It has my autograph burned into the wood, and that was something I dreamed about since birth. We all grew up swinging Mickey Mantle bats, or Willie McCovey bats, or some other hero’s model. We knew the most popular model designations, too. The K55 was a pretty run-of-the-mill bat, with a moderate handle and good weight distribution. The R43 had a slightly thinner handle and a little more top-end whip. The S2 was for the brave souls, with a very small handle and a solid propensity to sting you. And then there was the U1… I have to tell you, I can take it down off the wall right now and it STILL feels good in my hands. It wasn’t much of a tool for hitting, but it sure feels good.

Sure enough, there above my scrawled name (Hillerich & Bradsby has you sign your name a number of times when you get a bat contract, so that they can pick the one that can best be used in the branding process) there’s the designation U1.

That’s another evolutionary part of the Louisville Slugger’s development. In my dad’s day, and in my childhood, the model number was always stamped on the bottom of the knob. By the time I got to the minor leagues, they’d moved it to just above the autograph. So don’t let anyone sell you an “authentic” Babe Ruth bat if the R43 is right by his autograph.

My U1 did have one nice little bit of late 70s technology included, and it’s something many players are still requesting to this day. It has a “cupped end” design, where a bit of the top of the barrel has been scooped out. As with my infatuation with the U1 itself, because it felt good, my interest in the cupped end also started with the fact I thought it looked cool. Then, I heard the theory behind it and I never swung a regular bat again.

Why the cupped end? Because heavier wood is denser wood and denser wood is harder wood. This way, they could take a 33 oz. bat, made with harder wood, and just scoop an ounce and a half out of the end. Lighter bat, harder wood.

So there you have it. The handle’s too thick, there’s no knob for leverage, and as a minor leaguer the best I ever did with the U1 was to get my average up to around .275 for a brief while, playing for Paintsville in the Appalachian League.

But it sure did feel good!

We recently asked Vince Gennaro a few questions regarding his business career, interests, and the business of baseball. Here’s what he had to say:

Q: What are the two most important business lessons you have learned in life?

When a business is performing well, we need to overcome the tendency to be content. Of course it is important to celebrate successes, but it is very easy to overlook further opportunities to grow or improve the business.
Building a successful business can be exciting, but doing it while developing the talents of people in the organization is even more rewarding.

Q: What was your first job, and what did you like or dislike about it?

My first job was working in my father’s neighborhood delicatessen in New Jersey. I had a lot of pride representing my family. Even when I was a teenager, my Dad often relied on my advice about what items to offer, how to merchandise and price them. I taught me the importance of valuing your employees and empowering them to feel personally vested in a business. At the time, I didn’t like getting up at 6am every Sunday morning to open the Deli, or listening to Superbowl on the radio because I was working, when all of my friends were sitting in front of a TV watching the game.

Q: Who was a mentor to you in your career and why?

In many ways my father was my mentor. Although his background and experiences did not overlap with my pursuits, he often encouraged me to challenge the status quo and his advice on a wide range of topics was consistently on-the-mark.

Q: Over your career, what position you have held was the most challenging and why?

Early in my career I raised capital to buy and operate a women’s pro basketball franchise. Trying to put a women’s pro team sport on the map in 1979, just seven years after Title IX, proved to be an enormous challenge. In fact, it wasn’t until nearly two decades later that the WNBA finally proved the viability of the sport.

Q: Over your career you have had corporate roles, sports jobs, you are a teacher, you have had entrepreneurial ventures and you are an author — did you prefer one or two of the those to the others?

I’ve really enjoyed all of my experiences. My career track was not necessarily something you design, on paper, when you enter the workforce following college. It was more of a career “adventure”, which enabled me to have a wonderful diversity of experiences. My entrepreneurial venture came early in my career, when I had a more aggressive attitude towards risk. My corporate career at PepsiCo was enormously rewarding as it gave me the opportunity to hone my leadership skills by running large, complex businesses and it gave me an appreciation for the importance of developing people. Teaching and writing seemed like natural extensions of my business and sports career. If I had to pick one “favorite” role, it would be my consulting work with MLB teams. For a baseball fanatic, it’s tough to top having a “seat at the table” when important decisions are being made—roster moves, contract signings, etc.

Q: What drove you to becoming an author?

I’ve always enjoyed writing, particularly when I feel I’ve got an interesting story to tell. My motivation in writing Diamond Dollars was to communicate ideas which drew on my business experience, but translated it to the business of baseball. The most rewarding aspect of writing is when sports industry leaders tell you what they learned from reading your book.

Q: Talk to us about the Business of Baseball—what do you feel are the three most critical factors for a baseball team to be successful in today’s climate?

On the business side (i.e., sales, marketing, etc.) one of the most important aspects is to truly know and understand your fan base. Having sophisticated consumer insights that allow a team to understand the true makeup and psyche of their fans is the platform on which teams can build their relationships with their fans. Today the Red Sox “talk” to their fan base in a very different way than prior to their 2004 World Championship.

On the baseball side, it’s important to have the discipline to make data-driven decisions, not just gut-feel, instinctive ones. The baseball business has gotten far too complex to make seat of the pants player personnel decisions. Projecting player performance in a way that accounts for the player’s “aging curve”, or evaluating how their tendencies fit your ballpark are critical decision factors. Finally, I would say the best baseball operations organizations bring in talented front office people that challenge the status quo and resist the temptation to do things “the way we’ve always done them”. The industry is ripe for fresh thinking. There has never been a more favorable climate for young people to enter the business of baseball.

Q: What do you feel has changed most in the Business of Baseball in the past 10-15 years?

With the escalation of revenues and salaries, every decision in baseball places significantly more dollars at risk than it did 15 years ago. The stakes are higher, which is why we see more sophisticated analysis and decision processes being adopted within the baseball industry today. On another level, one of the most profound changes has been the emergence of the team-owned regional sports networks, such as NESN, the YES Network, and MASN, just to mention a few. These entities are more than just a vehicle to transmit telecasts of games to fans. They are brand building vehicles—even propaganda machines—which go a long way to shaping the fans perception of the team brand and its players. These regional networks also provide a tremendous source of revenue for some teams, which has served to turn the economics of baseball on its head. The Yankees—the most valuable sports franchise in North America—has a financial stake in its regional sports network that is valued at twice the value of their historic baseball franchise. And the YES Network did not even exist 10 years ago.

Q: What is your favorite sports moment as a fan?

I’ve had many, although I was a Cub fan for the years I was living in Chicago, so that experience tended to provide enough low points to even out my Yankee years. I would say being at Yankee Stadium for the clinching game of the 1996 World Series was my favorite moment, along with attending the Masters for the first time in 1992, the year that Fred Couples won the green jacket. In terms of a surreal experience—attending the 1997 Ryder Cup in Valderamma Spain and flying over on the Concord with the US team was truly unforgettable.

Q: What are your favorite passions outside of work?

I’m fortunate to have one of my passions blend into my work — my love for baseball. I also enjoy reading (usually American History and current affairs books), playing golf and cooking.

Q: Why would you encourage someone to enter sports as a career?

Over my 30+ year business career, I’ve come to learn that whatever career path we choose, we are likely to invest a large portion of our time in it. Since we all have a degree of “pride”, we also want to do well, or even excel at what we do professionally. All of that energy and effort we put into our careers will flow a little bit easier if we are following our passion. So it you are passionate about sports—if it’s something that is a part of who you are—then having a career in sports gives you the opportunity to blend your work life with your passion. That’s a combination that is likely to provide more personal satisfaction, as well as give you the best chance of having a successful, fulfilling career.

The Unscientific Way To Pick A Bat

Q & A with Vince Gennaro