Bespoke Bats Are Must-Have Accessories for Picky Hitters

In his airy new workshop, in a business park less than a mile from the Long Island Sound, Pete Tucci has batting cages, renovated offices, a showroom and a humidor large enough to store more than 13,000 billets of wood.

There is also, tucked in a corner, the rusty, motorized lathe that used to be in his garage.

It was there that Tucci began tinkering as a late-night diversion from the heating and air-conditioning business he co-owned with a relative. Tucci had no woodworking experience. The first bat he made snapped in half after he tried to swing it in his over-30 league. But the second remained intact.

Several thousand bats later, he has built Tucci Lumber Company into a supplier for more than 150 major league hitters, thus becoming one of the rising number of homespun bat producers who have begun to gain traction in an industry long identified with only one name: Louisville Slugger.