El Profe: Bats with a message

Three letters can mean a lot, can represent something much more significant than its component parts.

IBM stood out for decades in the business world. The products manufactured by the company became a standard for office equipment, from computers to copiers. Over time, many forgot that IBM stood for International Business Machines. The three letters had become the brand.

The sight of that familiar letter combination gave business operators confidence. They knew the brand and were confident in the product’s quality. Similarly, consumers and travelers are comforted by the sight of familiar brands or logos, whether they are near or far from home.

So my interest was piqued upon learning about what happened when a number of Latinos in baseball saw bats with a manufacturer’s logo of the letters DTB with a dove above them.

A Blessing That Keeps Giving

Dove Tail Bats. That is what the three letters “DTB” emblazoned on the bats’ barrels stand for. A few Latinos who noticed the DTB logo on these bats read the meaning of DTB as something different, something full of meaning, just not exactly what the founder of the Maine-based bat company, Paul Lancisi, had intended.

These Latinos interpreted the message of DTB as something both familiar and deeply meaningful because of their cultural background.

Dios te bendiga — God bless you. Bats with a “blessing” la bendición.

I learned about the Latino reading of the DTB brand mark of Dove Tail Bats as part of the response to my “Luis Tiant’s ‘Bendición’ ” article. That story described how meaningful it was to have received the blessing from one of my baseball heroes at the 2017 All-Star FanFest in Miami. At the end of the last on-stage interview, Tiant put his hand on my shoulder and said, “Dios te bendiga.”

A number of readers contacted me afterward to either thank me for writing the piece or to share a similar experience. Among those who contacted me were members of the Tiant family, several of whom shared their appreciation for how the story captured the significance of la bendición within Latino culture and for highlighting Luis’ elevated stature within Latino baseball history.

In Florida for the winter meetings in Orlando, my midday coffee run in the hotel lobby came to a halt when I heard someone calling out “Adrian, Adrian.”

I must admit I did a quick take, looking for Adrian González to appear, before I saw that someone was signaling to me, waving me over.

“Hi, Adrian, it’s Dan Tiant.”

After sharing un abrazo (hug), we chatted about baseball, family, and Latino culture. Dan told me how the article had brought back so many memories of being the son of a Latino baseball legend. He also informed me he had forwarded the story to Paul Lancisi, founder of Dove Tail Bats, and would introduce us.

Tearful Validation

As Lancisi tells the story, the first instance in which Latinos asked him about the logo’s meaning occurred in 2014. This followed an event for the Little League World Series when none other than Alex Cora, now manager of the Boston Red Sox but then affiliated with the Puerto Rican Little League, talked with Lancisi and ended up taking some DTB bats for his league.

Another person affiliated with the Puerto Rican team later called Lancisi to ask about the DTB bats. Specifically, he wanted to know the story behind DTB. Lancisi told him it meant Dove Tail Bats and the logo is the dove of the Holy Spirit.

The caller then asked Lancisi if he knew what DTB meant in Spanish.

“No. I don’t speak Spanish,” Lancisi replied.

“It means ‘Dios te bendiga,’ ” the caller informed him. “It means ‘God bless you.’ ”

“It brought tears to my eyes,” Lancisi told me about learning what these letters mean to many Latinos. That they saw DTB as having a religious meaning validated choices he had made in how he operated his company.

Lancisi shared another story about the Latino recognition of the bat’s spiritual message. Dominican outfielder Abraham Almonte greeted Lancisi at Cleveland’s spring training camp one year by calling out to his fellow players: “Hey, the Dios te bendiga bats are here.”

“What this has done for us,” Lancisi informed me, “is a lot of the Latino Christian community not only understands what the logo is, but they understand who we are as a company.”

A Bat With a Mission

For hitters, few things are more personal, intimate, and almost sacred as their bats. Major leaguers have their bats customized. They decide the specifications: type of wood, handle style, a knob end or not, color.

Additionally, it is common practice for many to mark their gear and equipment with a message, whether personal, inspirational or religious.

Some give their bats or glove a nickname — “Boomstick,” anyone? Many personalize their fielding gloves with a biblical verse or a spiritual message. Others, like Miguel Cabrera and Albert Pujols, have their children’s names stitched into the inside flap of the tongue of their cleats.

Those players who read something into DTB’s logo might have been wrong about what it stood for, but they were not far off from the intended message that Dove Tail Bats founder Paul Lancisi had in selecting that name for his bat company.

As founder of DTB, Lancisi knows the challenge of trying to get a foothold in a business in which brands like Louisville Slugger and Marucci hold the market share. In 2017, there were 33 bat companies seeking to do business with players. To stay in the business, you need a quality product, and you also need to get a number of players to sign with you to be their supplier.

Over the past three seasons, evidence of how much big leaguers like his bats keeps coming. As of 2017, 75 major leaguers had signed for DTB to be their bat supplier. Some are major players in the game.

The Cubs’ Kris Bryant and the Nationals’ Bryce Harper have swung DTB lumber. And while he may be retired from MLB, Manny Ramírez continued to play in the Japanese League and ordered his own batch.

Lancisi, a New Englander, was in disbelief when he answered the phone to hear the voice of one of his favorite players.

“No way,” Lancisi spoke into the phone.

“Honest, Papi, it is me,” stated the Dominican slugger.

By the time they finished their conversation, Manny had put in an order of bats.

A smart business plan and a whole lot of faith in the quality of his product are required to acquire a good reputation and a growing client list. Lancisi has strategically focused on the minor leagues in building his business. In 2017, the minors represented 60% of his business.

This is an additional benefit for Lancisi to the business.

“I get to minister to a lot of these young men. They are in a business where temptation is beyond what they can imagine. They didn’t have money coming into the game, but now they got money and they can go do anything they want. And my goal is to give them a vision that God has created them and given them a talent, and a purpose, and an ability to glorify Him and not to go out and squander it. And that is the whole mission behind us.”

Featured Image: Dove Tail Bats Facebook