Joe Lawrence may be the most celebrated baseball player ever to come out of Southwest Louisiana.
In 1996 Lawrence was selected in the first round of the Major League Baseball draft straight out of Barbe High School. He was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays who he played for from 1996-2002, and finished his baseball playing career with the Milwaukee Brewers in 2003.
It looked like his MLB career was over, but ironically, another sport reconnected Lawrence to the big leagues.
In the summer of 2003 Lawrence received a phone call from the LSU Football team. Lawrence, who had not played football since high school, was given an opportunity to play for the Tigers at the age of 27.
“It was something that intrigued me, and it didn’t help that I had some best friends that wanted to see that happen,” said Lawrence. “I got the family support that I needed to make the decision, so I decided to give it a whirl.”
Joe’s LSU Football encounter was short-lived as he suffered a devastating knee injury, but the experience was still extremely productive. That’s where Lawrence was introduced to Jack Marucci who is LSU’s head athletic trainer.
Marucci was a big baseball fan and spent some of his free time hand crafting wooden baseball bats for his son. Knowing Joe’s background, Jack sought the former major leaguer’s opinion on the bats, and Joe told the trainer that the bats needed to be in the hands of major leaguers.
Lawrence, Marucci, and Kurt Ainsworth, who is another former major leaguer, formed The Marucci Bat Company.
“In 2004 we got licensed by the major leagues,” Lawrence said. “We go from eight clients then, to now where we are in the hundreds.”
The Marucci Bat Company, which is located in Baton Rouge, has come a long way since 2004. Marucci is currently the second leading bat manufacturer in Major League Baseball behind the Louisville Slugger.
“If there is one marketing scheme we used, it was letting the right people swing our bats,” said Lawrence. “It has caused a ripple effect through the major leagues. We have clients from every organization in the league. Our clients are typically the better players on the team meaning character wise. They just happen to be great players as well.”
Marucci’s clients include Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals and Manny Ramirez of the Los Angeles Dodgers. They are two of MLB’s top sluggers in the game today.
And while Marucci has well over two hundred major league clients, the company produces thousands of bats each year.
“We did close to 18,000 bats in 2008,” said Lawrence. “This year we projected 20,000 and we’re well ahead of that pace.”
Lawrence is still very actively involved with the Barbe baseball program. Last year Marucci developed a prototype aluminum bat called the Cat 5. Lawrence allowed Barbe to use the bat last year, and maybe it’s just a coincidence, but Barbe won the state championship.
“Our kids love it,” said Barbe head baseball coach Glenn Cecchini. We just have one bat because they are being manufactured right now and all of the kids say it’s the best bat they’ve ever used.”
“It’s the hottest bat on the market as far as technology,” Lawrence said. “If you get any hotter, that’s an aluminum bat term meaning how the ball comes off of the barrel, it’s going to be illegal. So we are right on that threshold. We’ve pushed it as far as we can push it.”
The future certainly looks bright for Joe Lawrence and The Marucci Bat family. With the launch of its new aluminum bat, Marucci expects to become a major player in the aluminum bat industry, just as the company has done with its wooden bat line.
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