Dove Tail Bats hopes to put a dent in the competition in the major leagues

— -- When Paul Lancisi didn't make it into Major League Baseball, he revised his dream: to have his bats swung in the major leagues.

Lancisi tried to play for the MLB twice in the '70s and '80s and then, in 1996, he got into the wood industry, starting a cabinet-making business with his wife.

That company then evolved into Dove Tail Bats when his youngest son wanted to play baseball for a living and they grew tired of the quality of baseball bats being sold.

"We were buying bats in the commercial stores -- the big-bucks store -- and we were finding that the product just was not as good as we could produce," he said.

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So Lancisi came up with a five-year plan to create his own bat from scratch. He started a mill and bought the logs from the logging industry. That plan was actually accomplished in two years, he said.

The rest, they say, is history.

Dove Tail's bats are made with Maine wood and Maine labor. The facility is located in Shirley Mills and makes the bats from local Maine maple, birch and ash wood.

"We work hard and we got a great labor force," he said. "Everybody believes in quality and putting the best product out there as possible."

The company employs 11 workers in manufacturing and two sales reps in Arizona. And, Dove Tail Bats is hiring.

In 2015, the company made 7,000 bats. This year, it was projected to make 33,000. Its professional models sell for $85 to $145; youth models, $55 to $110. The company said it was on track to do $2 million in revenue this year.

Lancisi said his dream was to have his bats used in Major League Baseball. When Dove Tail was just starting out, his son, who was playing baseball in California, offered to shop the bats around to teammates.

"Instead of me sending him money, I sent him bats. And, I said, 'Support yourself,'" Lancisi said. "It was sort of marketing tool and a source of income for him. ... He'd go out and peddle bats on every corner."

In 2007, the company started marketing its bats. By 2009, the company had launched its retail website. And by 2014, it had started selling to the MLB. The bats are now sold in 10 countries, including Japan and Taiwan.

The company also has two bats in the Hall of Fame for Eric John Hosmer of the Kansas City Royals, according to Lancisi.

By the end of the 2017 MLB season, around 75 players were using Dove Tail's Bats. Now Lancisi says that when he watches an MLB game, he looks for his bat.

"We either want a home run or a strikeout," he said. "We don't want broken bats."