Maine news, sports, weather | Kennebec Journal, Augusta, Maine

SENIOR LEAGUE WORLD SERIES

LaCasse Bats gets a boost from Subway

Madison native to receive ESPN plug during Bangor event

BY DOUG HARLOW Staff Writer

SKOWHEGAN -- Baseball player and wooden-bat maker Jesse LaCasse has teamed up with Subway Restaurants for an appearance this weekend by Subway's Jared Fogle for closing ceremonies of the 2010 Senior League World Series in Bangor.

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BIG DEAL: LaCasse Bats, located on Water Street in Skowhegan, is donating four custom-made bats for the closing ceremonies of the Senior League World Series in Bangor. Jesse LaCasse will get a plug on ESPN during Sunday’s championship game.

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LaCasse Bats, situated above his father's shoe shop on Water Street in Skowhegan, is donating four custom-made baseball bats for the occasion. He'll even get a plug on ESPN during the championship game on Sunday.

LaCasse, 30, of Madison, currently lives and plays professional baseball in Germany.

"The bats are beechwood, which is the best wood I have found in Germany, and have sold about 20 beech bats made on the German lathe I bought off e-Bay," LaCasse said in a recent e-mail. "I made the bats here, painted them and shipped them, they actually arrived in Maine (on Monday).

"The partnership with Subway practically established LaCasse Bats in Germany. I had to find wood, get my tools shipped over from Maine and create a system for my logo and bat customization."

Each bat for this weekend's ceremony features the trademark green, yellow and white colors of the Subway franchises. The bats are the first colored bats made by LaCasse.

Fogle -- the Subway spokesman who advertisers say weighed 425 pounds in 1998 before switching to Subway sandwiches -- is scheduled to present bats to Bangor city councilmen Richard Bronson and Gerry Palmer at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Airport Mall.

Fogle will attend the Senior League World Series lunch at 11 a.m. Friday and hand out foot-long sandwiches to 250 players and staff. Fogle also is scheduled to throw out the first pitch for Friday's semifinal game at Mahaney Diamond.

"We are very thrilled to be able to partner with LaCasse Bats for this event," Subway franchisee and local board chairman Brian Hansen said in a news release. "They're local; they represent hard-working, roll-your-sleeves-up kind of people -- just like us. This customized bat is very unique and we're honored to have Jared present it to the great city of Bangor."

LaCasse plays for the Bonn Capitals, a team in the Bundersliga, or professional German baseball league. He was a star baseball player for Madison Area Memorial High School in the late 1990s and later at St. Joseph's College in Standish. He began making his own wooden bats in 2006.

LaCasse got his break with Subway after Greg Post, a 1996 St. Joseph's College graduate, saw a feature article about LaCasse Bats in the school's Alumni Magazine. Post handles the marketing, advertising and promotions for Subway restaurants in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Pennsylvania and New York.

"We feel that this would tie in nicely with Jared's (Senior League World Series) appearance and garner lots of media coverage, including a plug in his ESPN interview during the championship game," Post wrote to LaCasse in June.

LaCasse accepted the offer.

He said he now operates a "primitive bat shop" in a garage owned by his landlord in Germany, where he met his wife Anna. They have two sons: Brody, 3, and Rylan, 1.

"Since the Subway bats I have had a big demand for colored bats and I currently have a web designer working on my new shopping cart," LaCasse said. "You can choose a handle and barrel color, choose a logo in different colors and styles, pick your weight, type of wood and get it personalized."

Doug Harlow -- 474-9534

dharlow@centralmaine.com