For those old enough to remember the days before aluminum bats, when we broke a wooden bat – whether it be during a Little League game, a friendly game of ‘Over the Line’ or ‘Three Flies Out’ at the local park, school, or even the middle of the street (“Car…Car…C-A-R”), it was devastating. In fact, we would do everything possible to get a few more swings out of those treasured bats, from taping them up with electrical tape to driving nails into them to keep them from becoming firewood or ending up in a dumpster. (Just FYI – the nail thing was never a good idea).

But Casey Ploehn, longtime clubhouse manager for the Dodgers Advanced Single-A affiliate Rancho Cucamonga Quakes (and the Inland Empire 66ers before that) and his father Greg Ploehn have come up with a far better and certainly much safer use for those dead soldiers – bottle openers.

Although such a concept may sound trivial at face value, stop and think about it for a second. Even though we pretty much live in a twist-top and plastic-cap world these days, it’s probably safe to say that at one time or another you found yourself in the awkward situation at a picnic or a backyard barbecue where you needed a bottle opener and didn’t have one. Well, Casey and Greg have got you covered. In addition to being father and son, the two Devore, California residents are the proud owners of Clubhouse Crafts Company, which turns broken bats into beautiful – and useful – works of art.

“I was at a charity golf tournament a couple of years ago and they had a raffle afterward,” said the elder Ploehn. “One of my buddies had a winning raffle ticket but he didn’t want to leave his lunch and handed me his ticket and said ‘Here, Greg, you go up and get it.’ It turns out that the prize was a bottle opener made from the handle of a game-used baseball bat and it had an MLB hologram sticker on it. When I returned to my friends and went to hand it to my friend who had won it, he said ‘Your son works in baseball, give it to him.’ When I got home I gave it to Casey.

“But the more I got to thinking about it, the more I said to myself ‘You know, that’s a pretty cool idea.’ Casey went on-line and researched the MLB authentication sticker and learned that the broken bat had belonged to Chris Iannetta when he was with the Angels and that it was worth $200.”

It didn’t take Greg and Casey long to realize that spending $200 or more for a bottle opener made from an authenticated game-used MLB bat is something that a memorabilia collector might be willing to purchase as a collector’s item and put in a display case, but the average baseball fan who would use it for what it was intended probably would not.

“I told Casey ‘I think there’s another market here for something in the $20 to $50 range,'” said Greg. “We don’t care about MLB authentication, that’s [the other company’s] deal with Major League Baseball. As long as people know that it comes from an actual game-used professional bat and is reasonably priced, the average baseball fan might want something like this and would keep it in their bar and actually use it as a bottle opener.”

And with that, Clubhouse Crafts Company was born. Greg does the manufacturing and Casey handles the sales and promotions.

“My dad suggested that I give everyone in the Quakes clubhouse an opener and I said ‘Dad … that’s like $750,'” Casey said. “He said ‘I know, but they all have baseball friends and they all have baseball friends, how can you lose?’ and he was right.”

Right indeed … and it gets better.

Because of its close proximity to Dodger Stadium, many injured Dodgers players rehab in Rancho Cucamonga with the Quakes; guys like Justin Turner, Corey Seager, Austin Barnes, and even some guy named Clayton Kershaw. And with rehabbing players comes an occasional member of the Dodgers brass.

“I gave an opener to Andrew Friedman when he showed up to watch one of his guys rehabbing, and I gave one to [former Dodgers director of player development and new San Francisco Giants manager] Gabe Kapler,” said Casey. “Before long, some of the rehabbing Dodgers would bring their broken bats to me and asked me if we could make a few bottle openers from them, not for themselves but to give to family members and friends as gifts.”

The younger Ploehn not only told the players that they could make them but told them that they could make them with their names or other identifying marks from their bats plainly visible; something that even the authentication company doesn’t do.

As you might expect, word began to spread not just through the California League but also the major leagues about Clubhouse Crafts handmade bottle openers.

“That’s how we got started, showing them off to the players,” Greg said. “Some of the Dodgers’ big guys heard about the bottle openers and told different players what was going on, so it’s basically the word-of-mouth and the quality.”

With the holidays rapidly approaching and because of the aforementioned old-fashioned, handmade quality thing – not to mention eliminating those awkward situations where you needed a bottle opener and didn’t have one – a Clubhouse Crafts bottle opener would make the perfect gift and/or a unique stocking stuffer this Christmas. And for good measure, they also make broken-bat tap handles for those who might be interested in having one for their home bar, although these require a custom order, as they are a bit more difficult to make.

You can order your Clubhouse Crafts game-used bat bottle openers and other works of art through Casey’s Etsy page. And don’t forget to follow Clubhouse Crafts on Twitter and Instagram to see more of the Ploehn’s great products.

One thing is for certain – unlike his namesake, this Casey did not strike out.

Play Ball!