Sam Bat

{{short description|Canadian baseball bat manufacturer}} {{Redirect|Sambat||Smbat (disambiguation){{!}}Smbat}} {{Infobox company | name = Sam Bat | logo = Sam Bat logo, black.png | type = | industry = Baseball | fate = | successor = | founded = {{Start date and age|1997}} | founder = Sam Holman | defunct = <!-- {{End date|YYYY|MM|DD}} --> | hq_location_city = Carleton Place | hq_location_country = Canada | area_served = <!-- or: | areas_served = --> | key_people = Arlene Anderson (president, co-owner)<br />Jim Anderson (co-owner)<br />Paul Balharrie (co-owner)<br />Sam Holman (co-owner) | products = Baseball bats | owner = <!-- or: | owners = --> | num_employees = | num_employees_year = <!-- Year of num_employees data (if known) --> | parent = | website = {{URL|sambat.com}} }}

'''Sam Bat''', officially '''The Original Maple Bat Corporation''', is a Canadian company based in the town of Carleton Place, Ontario that manufactures baseball bats.<ref name="Kennedy" /> It was the first company to supply baseball bats manufactured from maple wood to professional baseball players.<ref name="Khurshudyan" /> As of 2013, it is one of 32 licensed baseball bat suppliers for Major League Baseball (MLB) and Minor League Baseball (MiLB) players.<ref name="Glier" /> It is also a bat supplier for baseball leagues throughout the world, including Germany, Japan, Korea, Italy, Mexico, and the Netherlands. It is the official bat manufacturer for the Australian Baseball League.

The company was founded in 1997 by Sam Holman, who manufactured bats in his garage at the company's inception.<ref name="Kennedy" /> Its president is Arlene Anderson, who with her husband Jim and investor Paul Balharrie acquired shares in the company in 2008.

==Background== Sam Holman was raised in Kansas City and rural South Dakota. After serving in the United States Army, he married a Canadian woman and moved to Ottawa. They later divorced, after which he became a stagehand carpenter at the National Arts Centre. He quit in 1994 after sustaining a knee injury.<ref name="Cohen" />

After spring training in 1996, Holman's friend Bill Mackenzie, who was working as an MLB baseball scout for the Colorado Rockies,<ref name="Cannella" /> told him that baseball bats were breaking too frequently,<ref name="Kennedy" /> asking Holman if he could "do something about it".<ref name="Cohen" /> Holman read about the physics of baseball and researched baseball bat patents.<ref name="CBJ" /> After some trials with ironwood,<ref name="Maguire2012" /> he eventually settled on using maple wood, which has greater density than the traditional ash wood, to manufacture bats.<ref name="Cohen" /><!-- <ref name="Maguire2012" /> Quote: Holman says living in Ottawa is a huge advantage for a bat maker. The city is home to the Wood Council, the Canadian Forest Research Centre along with two universities and numerous libraries including the Canadian Patent Library. Surrounding Ottawa is what he calls "the richest deciduous forest in North America." -->

He manufactured his first bat in his garage from a stairway bannister, and tested the 33-ounce bat with local children before Mackenzie suggested a test trial with the Ottawa Lynx, a nearby Triple-A minor league team in the International League.<ref name="Cohen" /> Among the players to test the bat was Fernando Seguignol,<ref name="Nelson" /> who became the first professional player to hit a home run with a maple bat.<ref name="CBJ" /> In April 1997, Holman went to Toronto, where he met with Joe Carter, Carlos Delgado, and Ed Sprague Jr., convincing them to test his bats during batting practice.<ref name="Cannella" />

Holman established the company with financing from his sister in 1997<ref name="Miller" /> following the successful trial of his bats by the Toronto Blue Jays.<ref name="Kennedy" /> Carter used a Sam Bat, which was not officially licensed by MLB at the time, by sneaking it into a game during the 1997 season,<ref name="Curry2007" /> hitting a home run in one of his at-bats.<ref name="Cannella" /> He became the company's first MLB client.<ref name="Graham" /> In 1998, MLB approved the maple bat for use in games, and Sam Bat became an authorized licensee of MLB.<ref name="Miller" />

Holman continued to manufacture baseball bats in a workshop at his home until opening a {{convert|29000|sqft|m2|adj=on}} factory on a {{convert|2|acre|m2|adj=on}} site in Gatineau in late 2001.<ref name="Cohen" /><ref name="Maguire" /><ref name="Curry2006" /> In November 2011, the company moved to North Industrial Park in Carleton Place.<ref name="Maguire2012" />

Holman's brother Nathan designed the bat logo.<ref name="Miller" />

==Production== The company does not disclose the source of wood for its bats, neither supplier nor region.<ref name="Kennedy" /> In the past, it has sourced its wood from a supplier in the Catskill Mountains.<ref name="Nelson" /> The bats it manufactures are made from ''Acer saccharum'', also known as ''rock maple'' or ''sugar maple''.<ref name="Kennedy" /> The company purchases veneer-grade cylindrical billets having 8% moisture weighing between {{convert|4.9|to|6|lb|kg}}.<ref name="Kennedy2" /> The billets are sorted by weight after being weighed "to the thousandth ounce", and the slope of the grain is visually graded; billets with the straightest grain are reserved for MLB players.<ref name="Kennedy2" />

Each bat model can be manufactured using billets in a small range of weights (for example, the bat manufactured for Miguel Cabrera is made from billets between {{convert|5.380|to|5.420|lb|kg|3}}, usually {{convert|5.400|lb|kg}}).<ref name="Kennedy2" /> After a final visual inspection, it is mounted into a wood tracer lathe, which in up to four minutes shapes the billet to match a template, leaving sufficient material for sanding.<ref name="Kennedy2" /> The bat's handle and barrel are then measured with a caliper to ensure it meets the template's specifications, and for models that require it, the end of the barrel is cupped (a small indentation is carved into the head of the barrel to shift the bat's centre of gravity toward the handle).<ref name="Kennedy2" /> The superfluous ends are cut off, and it is then mounted into a sanding lathe, which smooths the bat to its desired weight.<ref name="Kennedy2" />

A drop of ink is placed about {{convert|12|in|cm}} from the base of the handle, and follows the wood's grain.<ref name="Kennedy2" /> The path it follows is measured with a protractor using a magnifying glass, and those diverging by more than 3° are rejected.<ref name="Kennedy2" /> This "ink-dot test" is required by Major League Baseball to ensure bats used in MLB games are less prone to break.<ref name="Kennedy2" /> Microscopic scratches are smoothed, the bat is painted to the specifications defined by the player for whom it was produced, and the player's name and bat model are laser engraved on the barrel.<ref name="Kennedy2" /> Each bat is labelled with the logo of a bat and the term "Rideau Crusher", a reference to the nearby Rideau Canal.<ref name="Cohen" /> It is finished with a coat of varnish and dried overnight before being shipped with silica gel, a desiccant that controls humidity to ensure the moisture in the bat does not change.<ref name="Kennedy2" />

==Clients== After the 1997 Major League Baseball season, Carter became a free agent, playing for the Baltimore Orioles and later the San Francisco Giants. While with the Giants, he told slugger Barry Bonds about the maple bats.<ref name="Curry2007" /> Holman brought a set of bats to spring training in the 1999 season, where he met Bonds, who tested them during batting practice.<ref name="Cannella" /> In the 2001 season, Bonds hit 73 home runs using the Sam Bat, setting a single-season home run record.<ref name="CBC" />

Bonds became Sam Bat's best client,<ref name="Curry2007" /> citing the personal contact with "the man who's bent over making the bats",<ref name="CBC" /> and the popularity of maple-based bats increased significantly after he began using them.<ref name="Khurshudyan" /> By 2015, the company had 185 MLB players as clients, among them Ryan Braun, Miguel Cabrera, Yoenis Céspedes, Dustin Pedroia, Troy Tulowitzki, and Chase Utley.<ref name="Elliott2016" />

==Finances== In 2006, Holman listed the company for sale on eBay for $3.5 million,<ref name="Curry2007" /> citing his age and that the company was underfunded.<ref name="Naylor" /> In addition to the factory, machinery, and kilns, he advertised the company's patents and a "client list of the world's top hitters in baseball".<ref name="Naylor" /> At the time, the company had nine employees, produced about 17,000 bats a year generating sales of US$1.3 million (${{inflation|US|1.3|2006}} million in {{Inflation-year|US}}), with about 150 Major League Baseball hitters as clients.<ref name="Naylor" />

Holman did not expect any bids from the listing, which he used partly as a means to advertise the sale of his business.<ref name="Curry2006" /> This also provided Holman some time to find investors.<ref name="Parker" /> Three of five parties that eventually contacted him about purchasing the business learned of it as a result of the eBay listing.<ref name="Curry2006" /> In 2007, Paul Balharrie,<ref name="Maguire" /> and husband and wife Arlene and Jim Anderson bought shares in the company.<ref name="Elliott2015" /> The Andersons own 50% of the company,<ref name="Maguire2012" /> and Arlene Anderson became the company's president.<ref name="Elliott2016" />

Bonds worried that his bat supply may no longer be guaranteed, wrote a cheque for $40,000 to assure delivery of 80 bats during the season.<ref name="Curry2007" /> This stabilised the company's finances, enabling it to buy wood it needed to manufacture the bats.<ref name="Curry2007" />

==Legacy== Initially, Sam Bat was the only company producing maple baseball bats for use in professional and amateur games. With its success, by 2006 there were 30 companies that had developed maple baseball bats to compete with Sam Bat.<ref name="Naylor" />

The company now earns 85% of its revenue from international markets, including France, Germany, Japan, Korea, Italy, Mexico, and the Netherlands.<ref name="CBJ" /><ref name="CME2020" /> It is the official bat manufacturer for the Australian Baseball League.<ref name="CME2020" />

In 2004, Holman received an invitation to meet George W. Bush (President of the United States) and Condoleezza Rice (United States Secretary of State nominee) during a state visit to Ottawa.<ref name="Naylor" /> On 26 November 2004, a member of the Office of the Prime Minister asked Holman to prepare a bat as an official state gift for the president, an avid baseball fan who had previously owned the Texas Rangers.<ref name="Naylor2" /> During a reception at the Canadian Museum of History on 30 November, he presented two bats, one inscribed with "Prez 43" and "to the future commissioner of baseball", the other for his father George H. W. Bush inscribed with "Prez 41" and "to the father of the future commissioner of baseball".<ref name="Naylor2" /> Later at the reception, Holman arranged a telephone conversation between Bonds and his fan Rice.<ref name="Naylor2" />

==References== {{reflist|30em|refs= <ref name="Cannella">{{cite magazine|title=Against The Grain|last=Cannella|first=Stephen|magazine=Sports Illustrated|publisher=Time Inc.|date=25 March 2002}}</ref> <ref name="Cohen">{{cite news|url=http://www.cbc.ca/sports/baseball/bonds-bats-canadian-made-1.296895|title=Bonds' bats Canadian-made|last=Cohen|first=Tom|agency=The Canadian Press|publisher=CBC Sports|date=24 September 2001|accessdate=12 January 2017}}</ref> <ref name="Curry2006">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/24/sports/baseball/24bats.html|title=Bat Maker Wants to Sell Company on His Terms|last=Curry|first=Jack|newspaper=New York Times|date=24 November 2006|accessdate=13 January 2017}}</ref> <ref name="Curry2007">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/28/sports/baseball/28bats.html|title=Why Bonds Will Never Have to Borrow a Bat|last=Curry|first=Jack|newspaper=The New York Times|date=28 July 2007|accessdate=12 January 2017}}</ref> <ref name="Elliott2015">{{cite news|url=http://www.torontosun.com/2015/01/06/bob-elliotts-top-101-most-influential-canadians-in-baseball|title=Bob Elliott's 101 most influential Canadians in baseball|last=Elliott|first=Bob|newspaper=Toronto Sun|date=6 January 2015|accessdate=12 January 2017}}</ref> <ref name="Elliott2016">{{cite news|url=http://www.torontosun.com/2016/01/08/top-100-most-influential-canadians-in-baseball-in-2015|title=Top 100 most influential Canadians in baseball in 2015|last=Elliott|first=Bob|newspaper=Toronto Sun|date=8 January 2016|accessdate=12 January 2017}}</ref> <ref name="Glier">{{cite news|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2013/10/01/louisville-slugger-marucci-bats/2905151/|title=Louisville Slugger losing grip as bat of choice|last=Glier|first=Ray|newspaper=USA Today|date=1 October 2013|accessdate=12 January 2017}}</ref> <ref name="Graham">{{cite interview|url=http://exportwise.ca/interview-arlene-anderson-president-sam-bat/|title="Sam's first MLB customer was Joe Carter": An interview with Arlene Anderson, President of SAM BAT|last=Anderson|first=Arlene|interviewer=Jeff Graham|date=30 September 2016|accessdate=12 January 2017}}</ref> <ref name="Kennedy">{{cite news|url=https://www.thestar.com/sports/baseball/2016/03/25/inside-an-mlb-bat-factory.html|title=Inside an MLB bat factory|last=Kennedy|first=Brendan|newspaper=Toronto Star|date=25 March 2016|accessdate=12 January 2017}}</ref> <ref name="Kennedy2">{{cite news|url=https://www.thestar.com/sports/baseball/2016/03/25/creating-the-perfect-bat-drawn-out-process-for-mlbs-stars.html|title=Creating the perfect bat drawn-out process for MLB's stars|last=Kennedy|first=Brendan|newspaper=Toronto Star|date=25 March 2016|accessdate=13 January 2017}}</ref> <ref name="Khurshudyan">{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nationals/nats-have-their-wood-bat-preferences-but-science-suggests-there-is-no-difference/2014/07/25/c8145624-01e9-11e4-b8ff-89afd3fad6bd_story.html|title=Nats have their wood bat preferences, but science suggests there is no difference|last=Khurshudyan|first=Isabelle|newspaper=Washington Post|date=25 July 2014|accessdate=12 January 2017}}</ref> <ref name="Maguire2012">{{cite news|url=http://m.ottawacommunitynews.com/news-story/3956518-american-ambassador-enjoyed-visit-to-valley-baseball-bat-maker|title=American ambassador enjoyed visit to Valley baseball bat maker|last=Maguire|first=Jeff|newspaper=West Carleton EMC|publisher=Metroland Media Group|date=3 May 2012|accessdate=13 January 2017}}</ref> <ref name="Maguire">{{cite news|url=http://www.insideottawavalley.com/news-story/4906324-sam-bat-puts-town-of-carleton-place-on-pro-sports-map/|title=Sam Bat puts Town of Carleton Place on pro sports map|last=Maguire|first=Jeff|newspaper=Carleton Place Almonte Canadian Gazette|publisher=Metroland Media Group|date=9 October 2014|accessdate=13 January 2017}}</ref> <ref name="Miller">{{cite book|title=Good Wood: The Story of the Baseball Bat|last=Miller|first=Stuart|publisher=ACTA Publications|date=2011|isbn=9780879460020}}</ref> <ref name="Naylor">{{cite news|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/incoming/going-going-gone/article1106655/|title=Going, going, gone|last=Naylor|first=David|newspaper=The Globe and Mail|date=2 October 2006|accessdate=5 February 2017}}</ref> <ref name="Naylor2">{{cite news|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/entrepreneur-fashions-baseball-bats-for-a-big-leaguer-and-his-dad/article1007669/|title=Entrepreneur fashions baseball bats for a big-leaguer and his dad|last=Naylor|first=David|newspaper=The Globe and Mail|date=1 December 2004|accessdate=5 February 2017}}</ref> <ref name="Nelson">{{cite web|url=http://www.espn.com/mlb/news/story?id=3540538|title=Q&A about maple bats|last=Nelson|first=Amy K.|publisher=ESPN|date=18 August 2008|accessdate=12 January 2017}}</ref> <ref name="Parker">{{cite news|url=https://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=txbondsbat|title=Bonds at bat for Canadian company|last=Parker|first=Ian|agency=SportsTicker|publisher=Yahoo! Sports|date=8 August 2007|accessdate=13 January 2017}}</ref> <ref name="CME2020">{{cite magazine|url=http://www.2020magazine.ca/en/magazine/july-august-2012/swinging-big-lumber-sam-batrsquos-major-league-revelation-in-innovation|title=Swinging big lumber: Sam Bat's major league revelation in innovation|magazine=20/20|publisher=Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters|date=July–August 2012|accessdate=5 February 2017}}</ref> <ref name="CBC">{{cite news|url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/slugger-has-bonds-with-ottawa-bat-maker-1.307828|title=Slugger has bonds with Ottawa bat maker|publisher=CBC News|date=27 January 2002|accessdate=5 February 2017}}</ref> <ref name="CBJ">{{cite magazine|url=http://www.cbj.ca/sam_bat/|title=Sam Bat|magazine=Canadian Business Journal|accessdate=13 January 2017}}</ref> }}

==External links== * [http://sambat.com/ Sam Bat] * {{cite magazine|url=http://www.leevalley.com/en/newsletters/Woodworking/6/1/article3.htm|title=Sam Bat|volume=6|issue=1|magazine=Woodworking Newsletter|publisher=Lee Valley|date=September 2011|accessdate=5 February 2017}} * {{cite interview|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/sam-holman/article1110204/|title=Sam Holman|last=Holman|first=Sam|interviewer=Sasha Nagy|publisher=The Globe and Mail|date=22 November 2006|accessdate=5 February 2017}}

Category:Baseball bats Category:Companies based in Ontario Category:Canadian companies established in 1997