From Kenya to Holyoke: Local baseball bat maker celebrates 10 years in business

When you watch baseball on TV and think about the equipment they use, wooden bats may be one of the first things you think about. But what does it actually take to make a wooden bat? I got a tour of Ruto Bats in Holyoke to see the whole process. Baseball is something that we have really come to love it so much. You may think a baseball bat maker grew up playing the sport, but for Kipnyatich Ruto, his story is a little different. Born and raised in Kenya, Africa, Kip moved to the United States for college, and he wasn't fully exposed to baseball until he was out of college, volunteering at a lumberyard. When I arrived at the lumberyard that was making those dowels, I fell in love with everything she was doing, and I was like, wow, I felt like a child again. At that point, the lumberyard was just making wooden dowels to provide to companies like Rawlings and Louisville Slugger. When Kip and his wife Mindy officially took over, the mission became different. Personally, I wanted to make the finished product, but it was scary too. After the years that I've spent since 2013 to 2016, I felt very comfortable and very confident that I know exactly what it takes to make a good bat. Ruto Bats is celebrating 10 years of building a business ready for all baseball diamonds. We learned about the history of Ruto Bats, but what does the process actually look like to get this rectangle of wood into a perfectly spun bat that's ready for a game? Once we kiln dry them, we send it to this rounding machine. The rounding machine will make a dowel. Now I can have an official weight of this pellet to decide what bat model I can get and still be able to get the right drop weight of the bat. Then it's Kip's favorite part, seeing the bat actually take its shape. So this is about 32 ounces bat, and it's 33 and a half. So we can get rid of one more ounce to get the exact weight of the bat that a player of any level can use it. It may look ready for a game, but Ruto Bats puts each bat through Major League Baseball ink dot testing to ensure the safety and straightness of the wood grain. Even if it's youth, we want to make sure we're giving out the highest quality and strongest bat that we can possibly make. Now, they are ready for paint and a design. There's multiple layers of sanding and spraying and finishing and different finishes to make it hard and have the best result for playable bats. Ruto Bats is ready to reach ball fields all over the world. They currently have a partnership with UMass Amherst Baseball and are always looking for more.