Baseball Factory Goes to Bat for Players: Baseball Factory Matches Skills with Scholarships.
Diamonds can be a boy’s best friend.
Columbia native Steve Sclafani is his career on it.
In 1994, one year after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania Sclafani combined his bachelor’s degree with his lifelong love of what he calls “the thinking man’s sport” to create the Baseball Factory.
The Howard County company markets top high school baseball players who have diamond dreams to colleges nationwide, matching the skills of the players to the needs and scholarships of the college teams.
For Sclafani, 27, the Baseball Factory is a way to keep involved with the sport he loves.
I probably wasn’t going to make it in the big leagues with my ability,” he said.
Once a player in the Columbia Youth Baseball League and at Atholton High School, Sclafani gave up a baseball scholarship to Villanova University to attend the University of Pennsylvania where he studied marketing off the field and played second base on it.
Combining those two disciplines is paying off. Less than four years after its inception, Sclafani’s company is making a profit and growing exponentially in size and reputation.
“I’d send my kids to him in a heartbeat,” said Tim O’Brien, varsity baseball coach at Long Reach High School in Columbia. “He’s more than just a good baseball person, he’s a decent man.”
Eric Wyatt of Frederick – a freshman on full scholarship at St. Joseph’s University who is starting at first base – is one satisfied customer.
The Baseball Factory was the smartest act I took to get myself seen as a baseball player and get me money for college,” he said.
Inspiration for the company came, fittingly, at a baseball game.
Sclafani was watching a University of Maryland game with Mike Toomey, a scout for the New York Mets who started his baseball career 23 years ago as head coach at George Washington University.
They began chatting about what students have to go through to get on college teams. By the end of the game, plans for the Baseball Factory,/b> had reached first base.
“We really felt there were some things that ought to be done, and that we could do them,” said Toomey, now a consultant to the Baseball Factory whose reputation in the baseball world has helped Sclafani establish his company.
Assistant Coach Henry “Turtle” Thomas of the No. 2 ranked University of Miami team said Toomey’s connection with the Baseball Factory persuaded him to check it out.
“They evaluate the kids good,” he said. “I think it’s a great product.”
Sclafani started out working in a comer of his bedroom with materials purchased on his Visa card. He devised a plan to invite top high school players to try out for his firm.
The idea was to videotape them playing and get pro scouts such as Toomey to evaluate their skills. Then the players’ abilities, grades and SAT scores would be matched with the academic requirements and baseball needs of colleges nationwide.
The Baseball Factory’s first tryout drew three people. By 1996, Sclafani had moved the company into an office the size of a walk-in closet and had 150 clients. The following year, the client list swelled to 1,100.
This year, working from new offices in Ellicott City and making a profit for the first time, Sclafani is projecting 4,000 clients.
“I never even had second doubts at all,” Sclafani said. “It had to work. There was a need.”
His concept is not unique. Scores of businesses nationwide promise to connect high school baseball players with colleges.
Fans of Sclafani’s program say it is succeeding because it does its job well, using a combination of professional contacts, conscientious follow-up and realistic assessments of aspiring Cal Rip-kens.
“Any time you’re dealing recruiting services, you wonder whether they can give you the perspective to decide whether a kid is right for your program,” said John Jancuska, head baseball coach of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
“These guys are as professional as you’re going to get, very thorough,” said Jancuska, who has several Baseball Factory alumni on his team this year.
Ryan Lambert, assistant coach at Charleston Southern University, a Division I school, said he knows a player is right for his program if he comes recommended by the Baseball Factory.
“I get stuff in the mail from recruiting services all the time, and a lot of time these kids aren’t what I need,” Lambert said. “What makes [the Baseball Factory] unique and special is that they only send people who are right for my program.”
The Baseball Factory has placed clients everywhere from community colleges to Division I schools, and a few of its prospects have even been drafted by professional teams out of high school. Matt Halloran, a Baseball Factory alumnus from Fredicksburg, Va., was a first-round draft pick of the San Diego Padres in 1996.
But most of the Baseball Factory’s,/b> clients aren’t headed for the major leagues, and they know it.
“I just wanted to play in college,” Jason Buddin, a shortstop for Oakland Mills High School. He enrolled in the Baseball Factory’s yearlong program last summer, and so far has attracted the interest of seven colleges.
After the Baseball Factory evaluates players and helps each choose up to 15 schools to target, staff members guide the players through interviews, visits with coaches and scholarships application. Last year, Baseball Factory clients received $5 million in scholarship money, Sclafani said.
The one-time fee of $422 gets the client into the program, though players cannot try out for Sclafani and his staff without a recommendation from a coach or scout. Occasionally, Sclafani waives the fee for outstanding players who cannot afford the services.
“It was definitely worth the money. I spent a whole lot more than that on stuff that wasn’t worth a nickel,” said Richard Thompson of Damascus, whose son also named Richard plays for UMBC.
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