Archive: Business & Technology

Birdman Bats started as a hobby five years ago when Gary Malec decided to make a baseball bat for his brother Mark.  It wasn't his first bat, but he wanted this one to be special, so he came up with a logo based on Mark's illustrations.  Mark won the Junior College National Championship with the bat that year, and since then Gary has turned about 150 bats on a homemade lathe powered by a used washing machine motor he picked up for $100.  With a Kickstarter campaign Birdman Bats is ready to join the major leagues.  Matt Tucci and Nick Geisler, both of Lansing, are part of the team working on making Birdman Bats hit a home run.

"We are two hometown kids who love sports," says Tucci.  "I played baseball my whole life in Lansing.  I grew up with Steve Colt on the town hall fields, all the way back in T-ball.  Then growing up with Stu Dean and Matt Loveless and Mike Herzog and all the other coaches that I had."


The company is made up of CEO & Founder Gary Malec, Lars Anderson, Mark Malec, Timoteo Cusick, Cody Silveria, Tucci, and Geisler.  Anderson is currently playing for the, playing for the Tulsa, Oklahoma Drillers, a minor league team owned by the Los Angeles Dodgers organization.  The other six share a house together in San Francisco, coordinating the business on a white board in their living room.  The team shares a number of other interests as well.  And there's a band.

Geisler is a full time writer, filmmaker, and musician.  Tucci is a a drummer, writer, Web developer, and sound engineer.  While at Lansing High School the pair were part of The Debunks, a local punk band that played in Ithaca underground shows, at the Haunt, Castaways, parties and talent shows. After graduating, Tucci went to Ithaca College and Geisler to Hamilton College.  After college they made 'House Divided', a horror film, together and a nomination to the Hoboken International Film Festival encouraged them to move to California to pursue their film making and music passions.  They ended up in San Francisco two years ago, not imagining they would be part of a baseball bat company.

"Music was a driving reason for us to come out here," Tucci says.  "We had been talking about it for a while and we knew that California was where we were going to go to make our dreams come true."


It was music that brought the two to the Malec brothers.  Mark and Gary, Tucci and Arjun Iyengar are Daytime Nightlife, an an 'American renaissance rock band' that features Mark on lead guitar, Gary on bass, Iyengar on keyboards, and Tucci on drums.  Geisler has also filled in on bass for a short time when Gary had injured himself.  The idea for the company came when Gary mentioned that Manny Ramiriz, a powerhouse hitter who came to fame playing for the Boston Red Sox, had ordered some bats from him.

"When we heard that we thought people want them," Geisler says.  "These are clearly a really great product and a great company and just good people.  That sort of sales are the professional market for the company be running it for minor leagues and actually have full orders going out to teams as we get started."


That is not the only success the company has had.  The bats have caught the attention of former playre Raúl Ibañez, now an advisor to the Los Angeles Dodgers.  While they are targeting major and minor league teams and players, they are also focusing on youth baseball, softball and coaches.

The responsibilities are shared by all seven men, but each brings special talents to the mix.  A professional video on the Kickstarter site was made by the Lansing contingent, with everyone contributing.  Daytime Nightlife music can be heard on it.  Gary Malec is an actor and jack of all trades, who fixes computers, cars, and just about anything; Tucci has taken on social media marketing for the bats; Geisler crunches numbers and writes promotional copy; Anderson, Cusick and Mark Malec are hitters and Silveria is a baseball player and coach who concentrate on showing the bat to players and making sales  -- all seven bring unique skills to the mix.

"That makes us a stronger company, but it also makes it a ton of fun," Geisler says.

The Kickstarter campaign is to raise $25,000 for a computerized lathe.  Geisler says the level of precision such a machine can deliver is demanded by major league players who may order a dozen bats, expecting each one to be exactly the same.

"The other cool thing about Kickstarter is it's our chance to meet fans, too.  We have people giving a dollar.  If you give a dollar we will write your name permanently on our new machine, and keep you updated and keep you a part of it.  We're just trying to build a fan base and whatever we have to do to build a fan base and get people involved and let them know how much fun we're having."

Whenever a donation is made the gang erupts in caws and bird noises, and bird puns abound. 

"These bats are really kind of funky and they're quirky different bats than most other things on the market.  It's just a ton of fun," Geisler says.  "Whenever we get a donation or some money we all caw and make bird noises.  To me, that kind of energy, the kind of weirdness, you know -- it's a sport.  It's baseball.  It's not supposed to be serious.  That's why I think we're catching on so quickly, and why we're expanding and pulling as many people into the nest as we can."


Moving to the west coast, Tucci and Geisler certainly didn't imagine themselves in the baseball bat business.  They say San Francisco wasn't even the destination they first imagined when they decided to move to California.  But both exude enthusiasm for the city, the people they live and work with, and for the quality of the bats and the future of the new company.

"I love baseball.  We still watch it.  But with so many things on the agenda it's hard to balance everything," Tucci says.  "When we're trying to focus on music and film, baseball is a whole 'nother avenue that we love, but we didn't necessarily think of or see ourselves being a part of.  We can now have something that we have a part in crafting being held by some of our favorite players of all time -- it's a dream come true for us."

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