When kids play baseball, they dream of doing so on the highest stage possible. Nick Fiola, who works in production and sales for Victus Sports, doesn't play in the major leagues, but he and the company he works for play a major role for some of the game's most important stars.
Fiola says he joined Victus Sports, a company in Blackwood, New Jersey that produces wooden baseball bats, in 2013, shortly after the company started in 2012. Since that time, Fiola says Dustin Pedroia of the Boston Red Sox, Giancarlo Stanton of the Miami Marlins and Yoenis Cespedes of the New York Mets are among a group of MLB All-Stars who have ordered customized bats from Victus Sports. Beyond the All-Stars, a host of younger players in the league, such as Mookie Betts of the Red Sox, have also had customized bats created by the company, a sign of the company’s growth.
While Victus Sports has supplied bats to some of the game's elite, Fiola says he doesn’t value that experience any more or less than when the company produces bats for children who dream of playing at the level some of the company's current clients do.
“With the kids, young high schoolers of college guys, I get just as much pleasure out of (producing a bat for) them, but for a completely different reason,” Fiola said in a telephone interview. “One particular bat holds a lot more sentimental value to these people than let’s say the pros, because they (the pros) go through tons and tons (of bats) each season.”
Though Fiola says that it’s difficult to compare the feeling he gets from customizing a bat for a professional or for a high-schooler, he spoke glowingly about making bats for professionals.
“To get a pro, especially a top-tier guy, there’s really no words for it. You look back on all the work that you put in when you were making bats that these guys would want nothing to do with, and you see where we’ve come from and it’s really humbling.”
Fiola went on to describe the experience of providing clients with bats as ‘amazing,’ continuing to note that he enjoys providing bats for both youth and lower level athletes as much as he does professionals.
Fiola also pointed out in the interview that between both professional baseball players and youth players, the lead-up to baseball season tends to be a busy time for the company.
“This is far and away our busiest time of the year,” Fiola said. “We’re putting out anywhere from 400 to 600 bats a week.”
Given that college baseball season is already in full swing, and high-school season is around the corner, many of those bats have probably gone to youth players. However, when the Marlins or Mets visit Citizens Bank Park to play the Philadelphia Phillies this season, it won’t be hard to spot a Victus bat that Fiola helped to produce.
You can visit Victus Sports online here.
Tim Kelly (@TimKellySports) is the Managing Editor of Philliedelphia.com, focusing on news and features.
