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Kissimmee Stix Bio

Originally known as Kissimmee Sticks, Sticks Baseball has undergone extensive changes since its birth in Mike Romack’s backyard workshop in 1990. The company was sold by Romack and then was recently purchased by Easton which apparently has plans to enter the wood bat market, likely in response to the recent trend towards wood or woodlike bats in the college ranks. Before going big time, Kissimmee Stix was one of the many new micro-bat companies shaking up the bat industry.

Origins:

According to the Orlando Sentinel, Mike Romack, the founder of Kissimmee Sticks, began with a simple enough goal, a desire to make his two sons some little league bats of wood, just like their favorite major leaguers. A carpenter by trade, Romack began making bats with orangewood, hickory, maple, cypress, oak and ash for fun. When the other little league teams began clamoring for similar bats, Romack petitioned the Little League headquarters in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, to supply them. Romack sent six Kissimmee Sticks to Williamsport and in the summer of 1991 received approval, along with a $250 bill and a 5-cent royalty fee for every bat sold.

A 1991 Orlando Sentinel news article attributed the following prophetic statements to Romack, “Romack, who needs $75,000 to $100,00 to purchase bat-making equipment to enable him to dowel 35,000 bats a year to uniform size, knows he will fail without outside capital. If he does attract a business partner, the industries newest Geppetto envisions a future where Kissimmee Sticks (wife, Terrie, prefers a ‘Stix’ spelling) and Louisville Sluggers trademarks share bat rack space in major and minor league dugouts.”

The Orlando Business Journal offered the following tale (which we find surprising) about how Kissimmee Sticks went from little league to big league. “One day during spring training, Romack’s son Jet, 15, took the bat his dad had made him to the Astros’ baseball camp at Osceola County Stadium. Someone in the Astros’ organization took a few swings with Romack’s bat. It was a hit.”

In June of 1992, Mike Romack, John Page and Don Hill formed Kissimmee Sticks and received major league baseball’s approval. Page was described by the Atlanta Journal and Constitution as a former airline pilot turned lay minister and baseball bat entrepreneur. Page told the Constitution that the secret to Kissimmee Sticks was the “power boning” process. Start up costs were estimated at $25,000.

Bichette Blasts Kissimmee Sticks Into The Hall Of Fame

At the outset, Kissimmee Sticks were manufactured in Romack’s shed. In 1993, with the help of Bill Newman, his only full time employee, Romack began churning out 1,200 bats a month. In the Spring of that year, Romack began to court major leaguers and minor leaguers during spring training. One of the players who decided to use the bats was Dante Bichette of the Colorado Rockies. Early in the 1993 season, Bichette used a black 32 ounce Kissimmee Sticks bat to hit the first home run in the expansion team’s history, and that bat rests in the Hall of Fame.

In an attempt to cater to his clientele, Romack constructed a baseball diamond next to his facility which allowed players to test out his wares for real. Kissimmee Sticks converts were Scott Pose, Jeromy Burnitz, Jose Canseco, Juan Gonzalez, Ozzie Smith, Bobby Bonilla, and Sid Bream. Three major league teams ordered bats from the company in 1993. In 1994, the orders grew and so did the stories about the Kissimmee Sticks facility. With little to no advertizing, the company relied on word of mouth and the tested and true: give away.

Big leaguers did not just call, they showed up on the company’s doorstep. The Orlando Business Journal related this story about Glenn Davis: “Once Glenn -- who played for both the Astros and the Baltimore Orioles -- told his wife he was going to Romack’s to look at a couple of bats. He was gone for almost four hours. The next day, he went back to Kissimmee Sticks. This time with his daughters. He hit for most of the day while his daughters played in the Orange groves.” Indeed, some of the drives from the field ended up as prizes for many of the neighbors.

Purchase By Steve Miller And Major Leaguers

In November of 1995, Florida money manager Steve Miller and former major league pitcher Randy O’Neal as well as major leaguers Joe Oliver and Ron Karkovice purchased Kissimmee Sticks from Romack, changing the name to Stix Baseball. Almost immediately the company moved its bat-making operations out of Romack’s garage and into a 6,600 square foot building in Orlando.

Using the clubhouse connections that only former major leaguers can have, the company gained access to all major league clubhouses. By 1996, the Orlando Sentinel Tribune reported that over 80 major leaguers were using the bats. From 7,500 bats in 1994, the company was estimating it would produce over 20,000 in 1996. The company’s secret was revealed in a 1996 interview with the Tribune. “If you have baseball players who own the company, you take better care of them . . .Our niche is we’re owned by baseball players. They know what bats are about.” By August of 1998 Stix Baseball was reporting that 17 major league organizations had made significant orders and 28 out of 30 had ordered at one time or another.

The Orlando Sentinel Tribune reported that I April of 1998 Stix hired Larry Steele as its new production manager. Steele brought years of experience, having run bat making operations for Worth and Rawlings for 28 years and, apparently, close relationships with such stars as Frank Thomas, Albert Belle and Fred McGriff.

Barry Bonds used a Stix bat borrowed from Houston’s Derek Bell to win the 1996 All Star Game home run hitting contest and reportedly used a Stix bat to hit his 400th career home run against the Florida Marlins.

Sources

Frank Carroll, Maker of Wooden Bats Would Like to Turn a Profit, The Orlando Sentinel Tribune, June 30, 1991, pg. 17.

Frank Carroll, Kissimmee Sticks a Hit With the Majors, an Independent Bat Maker From Kissimmee is Popular With Little Leaguers and Pros, The Orlando Sentinel Tribune, June 20, 1993, pg. 17.

John Hughes, Little Workshop Makes Baseball Bats for Big League Players, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, May 1, 1994, Sec. M, pg. 3

Alan Byrd, Bat builder plays on field of dreams, Orlando Business Journal, September 9, 1994, Sec 1., pg. 28.

Scott Kauffman, Batter Up; Micro-Battery in Orlando Carves a Niche in the Major Leagues, The Orlando Sentinel Tribune, August 18, 1996, pg. C9.

Scott Kauffman, New Bat Shows Up In Majors, The Orlando Sentinel Tribune, October 23, 1997, pg. C1.

Scott Kauffman, Busbin, Astros Remain Far Apart, The Orlando Sentinel Tribune, August 16, 1998, pg. C8.

Bill Buchalter, Region is Abuzz With Triathlon News, The Orlando Sentinel Tribune, September 4, 1998, pg. C10.

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