This article was reprinted with the permission of Business Monthly.

Steve Sclafani came home to Columbia in 1994 after completing his Ivy League college and baseball careers at the University of Pennsylvania. With those impressive achievements adorning his resume, he faced that next question that all college graduates must answer.

“Now what?”

Happily, Scalfani had an idea – to videotape high school baseball players and circulate the footage to college coaches around the country, thus marketing the athletes in hopes of making their own dreams of playing in college a reality.

So, he scrounged up $1,000 and set up shop in his apartment. And the Baseball Factory was founded.

After eventually graduating to a small office and demonstrating the viability of the business, Sclafani and partner Rob Naddelman (a former Penn teammate) received the first installment of a $100,000 loan from the Jim Rouse Entrepreneurial Fund (JREF) in 1997. This allowed them to lease a larger headquarters in the Pine Orchard Shopping Center on Route 40 and to market nationally.

That was also the year that Scalfani, an Atholton High School grad, had somewhat of an epiphany. “We were mainly a recruiting company until that point,” he said, “but I realized we were missing out on the instruction angle. So we started doing that, too. It’s been great to see players progress.”

How It Works

Today, the Baseball Factory has grown to employ 35 workers from its 10,000-square-foot headquarters on Red Branch Road in Columbia, with the duo anticipating revenues approaching $7 million this year.

To date, the company has helped approximately 5,000 players choose colleges, with more than $65 million in scholarships having been awarded to Factory players, which Sclafani considers “a bonus.” Also, more than 100 having been selected in the Major League Baseball (MLB) draft.

“Our office is set up like that of a MLB team,” he said, explaining that marketing colleges requires a national network. “We have 15 former college coaches and scouts working in the field, but our biggest difference is that we teach our employees how to interact with parents, as well as players. Our follow-up and service is what sets us apart.”

But that means dealing with all concerned in a realistic manner, too. “Kids sometimes improve after our analysis and I love that. But if we overrate a kid, we lose credibility with the college coaches. That can’t happen,” he said.

The only such service in the country to be endorsed by the Arkansas-based High School Coaches Association, the Baseball Factory generates its revenues through its camps, which cost up to $3,000 per week; earning a spot on its tournament team, which costs $2,500 per week; the Baseball and Academic Targeting Service (or BATS) program, which runs $500 for an evaluation and 50 videos; and through private instruction, at $60-$125 per hour.

Those In the Know

A number of former Major League Baseball players that “eat and sleep baseball,” work with the program Sclafani said, including former Oriole Larry Sheets and other ex-major leaguers like Rick Sofield, Jim Presley and Clint Hurdle, currently Colorado Rockies Manager.

Calling it a “great opportunity for young players to gain recognition,” Charlie Blackburn, executive director of the National Amateur Baseball Federation in Bowie, still waited about three years before working with the company. “We don’t deal with anyone else with a similar product. There are a lot of companies that come and go in that part of the business.”

Coach Bernie Walter of Arundel High School in Gambrills offered a similar view. “We recommend kids to the Baseball Factory who can benefit by them and are glad to do that,” he said. “I don’t do that for very many such businesses,” also noting the importance of a track record that is often lacking.

Mike Toomey, a major league scout for the Montreal Expos who lives in Gaithersburg, brought the company’s stature into tighter focus. “With baseball being a non-revenue sport at most colleges, some kids don’t get scouted and they have to make themselves marketable.”

The company’s skills in dealing with parents are also crucial in the process. “Some have illusions of grandeur for their kids, but don’t see other kids out of their own neighborhoods. Some consider their sons a Division 1 prospect,” Toomey said. “And they may be, too. But the big thing is for the player is to go somewhere he would have gone academically anyway and get a chance to play.”

Heading (to a New) Home

The point, Toomey said, is that, “It’s okay to be a Division III or junior college player, provided you are going to play. It’s all about getting a degree and having a positive experience.”

Sam Perlozzo, bench coach for the Baltimore Orioles, said he “never knew a thing about” the Baseball Factory until Toomey brought it to his attention. “The concept, I thought, was great. I wondered why I’d never thought of it,” he said, adding that the program was “a major help” to his son, Eric, who plays at Shippensburg University in Pa., after initially attending Marist College in New York – until the coach that recruited him left.

“We went back to Steve to look again,” Perlozzo said, “because the Baseball Factory knows who needs what players. We had tryouts at about a half-dozen places in the mid-Atlantic.”

Perlozzo, who has been a major league coach for 18 seasons, obviously knows a considerable number of people in the game. But he said he can’t “come close to the contacts the Baseball Factory has, as far as colleges are concerned. I’d recommend the company to anybody.”

Toomey stressed that such a service is especially important in the baseball world, as NCAA programs lack the resources they once had. “With the smaller staffs, a lot of kids slip through the cracks,” he said.

And that, in short, explains the Baseball Factory’s success. With a decade under his belt, Scalfani is now looking for a 30,000- square-foot space to accommodate the company’s growth.

But that’s just the latest news. Not only does the company run the BASE HIT outreach program for at-risk youngsters, but also signed a sponsorship deal with Puma last year and recently partnered with Team One, which offers high-tier player showcases nationwide which are attended by more than 400 college coaches and scouts annually.

Interestingly, he has even struck a stadium naming rights deal with UMBC in exchange for use of (and buying lights for) its baseball diamond.

Looking back, it almost seems appropriate that Scalfani’s playing career stalled at the college level. It all comes down to his passion – and one more thing. “You have to understand the baseball – and the business sides,” he said.