Play ball! Maine innovation touted as baseball 'game-changer'
Photo / Courtesy Dove Tail Bats
From left, Christian Koss of the Portland Sea Dogs and Dove Tail Bats owner Paul Lancisi at Wednesday’s unveiling of a new bat scanner made by Dove Tail Bats in Shirley.
Photo / Courtesy Dove Tail Bats
Gov. Janet Mills speaking at Wednesday’s news conference, joined by (from left) Portland Sea Dogs player Christian Koss, a user of Dove Tail Bats; Newfangled Technology owner Brian Barker; Dove Tail Bat Co. founder Paul Lancisi; and Portland Sea Dogs radio broadcaster Emma Tiedemann.
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Dove Tail Bats on Wednesday unveiled new technology that allows baseball players anywhere to scan their bats and have them reproduced at the company's factory in Maine.
The 15-employee company, based in the Piscataquis County town of Shirley, already supplies bats to professional ball players at all levels.
Years the making, the company's new remote bat scanner can transmit data about any baseball bat to the Dove Tail Bat facility in Shirley for immediate production of a bat made from Maine maple or birch. A patent is pending on the innovation.
"This scanning ability and nearly instantaneous turnaround time doesn’t exist with any other bat company," said Paul Lancisi, founder of Dove Tail Bats. "It is quite literally a game-changer for baseball."
While Dove Tail Bats has been using similar scanning technology in its own shop since 2015, that method requires physically shipping bats to Maine.
With the new remote access, players can now conduct a scan from their clubhouse or training facility and have data automatically sent and ready for production. Newfangled Solutions, a company based in Livermore Falls, developed the scanning and production systems.
"As a Mainer, I’m happy that everything associated with Dove Tail Bats and this machine — from the lumber used in the bats to the machine that cuts the wood to the source code used for this technology — is made in Maine," said Brian Barker, owner of Newfangled Solutions. "This is a source of pride for our companies, and I hope it’s a source of pride for baseball fans throughout Maine."
'Home run' for Maine
The new scanner was unveiled Wednesday at Hadlock Field, home of the Portland Sea Dogs.
"Today, we celebrate another investment Dove Tail Bats is making to serve athletes better," said Gov. Janet Mills, who noted that the remote signal is only possible because of the collaboration between two Maine companies. "This is a home run for our home state."
Company officials said the remote scanners are already getting interest from big-league clubs.
"As far as we know, the New York Mets will be the first to have the remote scanner," a spokesman for Dove Tail Bats told Mainebiz, noting that the manufacturer is already receiving bats at its factory for reproduction.
Dove Tail Bats has spent the past two years on research and development of the new remote scanner, which Lancisi said has been a dream of his going back 10 years.
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