Major League Baseball's Players' Weekend begins Friday, an annual event meant to celebrate the athletes "beyond the bases." Over the years, we've seen players wear off-the-wall jerseys with nicknames on the back and customized cleats, bats and gloves. This Players' Weekend, MLB has seen more than 400 submissions of customized bats, more than ever. A large portion of the bats are supplied by Victus, a bat manufacturer that began in New Jersey in 2012.
CBS Sports spoke to Doug Trimble, the company's operations manager, about what we'll see this coming Players' Weekend, as well as some of the customized bats we've seen in the past. First things first, the art on every single bat is customized by one person. "We have an in-house artist, his name is Bruce Tatem, he goes by 'The Bat King,'" said Trimble.
"He hand-paints all those bats. They're completely airbrushed. It's a common misconception that these come out of a machine.
He's doing probably over 400 custom bats for Players' Weekend. "We do a bunch around jewel events. We did a ton of stuff around the All-Star Game, the Home Run Derby, (Bryce) Harper's corn bat that he used in the Field of Dreams game, and then this weekend you'll see them all over the place." The Bat King's Instagram account is a treasure trove of the bats he's made, from Juan Soto to James Wood, as well as videos of him creating his art.
Often, Trimble said, the players aren't quite sure what they want to do yet, but Victus will work with them through team personnel. "Sometimes we internally come up with something creative for them -- if it's something they're known for, a moment that's already happened, a correlation with something that we think would be cool storytelling," Trimble told CBS Sports. "Half of it is the players reaching out if they want something specific.
We'll give some players some options to pick from as well. If they don't have a specific idea, they could choose from a select amount of custom bats we've provided the clubhouse manager." MLB must approve all customized bats, ideally by a deadline, but Trimble admitted that his company has gotten requests as late as this week. "An idea will pop in their head and they'll just remember that it's Players' Weekend and send us three ideas they wanna do," Trimble said.
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