It’s not sculpting, exactly, but the cylinders that come off the line at Rutto Bats in Holyoke are little miracles of transformation – from long blocks of wood to instruments that can get baseball fans onto their feet at Major League Baseball stadiums around the country.
The story of Rutto Bats – told by reporter James Foster in our pages Thursday – is many stories in one: The immigrant who knew nothing about America’s pastime. The ingenuity and drive of a New England family business. The primacy of family, in which a man who grew up in Kenya came to befriend his wife’s aunt, who owned a sawmill in Belchertown and wanted to see it continue in some form, with his help.
