Kurt Ainsworth
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Kurt Harold Ainsworth (born September 9, 1978) is an American former professional baseball
pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...
. He played for the
San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Y ...
and
Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. As one of the American League's eight charter ...
of
Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
(MLB) and went to
Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...
. Ainsworth also won an
Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...
gold medal with the
United States national baseball team The United States national baseball team represents the United States in international-level baseball competitions. The team is currently ranked 5th in the world by the World Baseball Softball Confederation. Team USA won the Olympic baseball t ...
at the
2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 ( Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from ...
in Sydney. Following his professional baseball career, Ainsworth co-founded Marucci Sports and currently serves as the company's CEO.


High school career

Kurt Ainsworth attended Catholic High in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. As a senior, he was a first team All-State selection, won the Student-Athlete Award, and was named Catholic High Man of the Year. After his senior baseball season, he played in the Louisiana All-Star game.


Professional career

After playing collegiately for Louisiana State University, Ainsworth was the first-round draft pick (24th overall) of the
San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Y ...
in the
1999 MLB draft The 1999 First-Year Player Draft, Major League Baseball's annual amateur draft of high school and college baseball players, was held on June 2 and 3, 1999. A total of 1474 players were drafted over the course of 50 rounds. First round selections ...
. He signed with the Giants and finished the 1999 season with the
Salem-Keizer Volcanoes The Salem-Keizer Volcanoes are a baseball team located in Keizer, Oregon, who are charter members of the Mavericks Independent Baseball League, a four-team league entirely based in the Salem Metropolitan Statistical Area and playing all their hom ...
of the Class A
Northwest League The Northwest League is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Northwestern United States and Western Canada. A Class A Short Season league for most of its history, the league was promoted to High-A as part of Major League Basebal ...
, where he started 10 games and accumulated a record of 3-3 and an
ERA An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. Comp ...
of 1.61. He spent the season with the
Shreveport Captains The Shreveport Captains (1971–2000) and Shreveport Swamp Dragons (2001–02) were a professional minor-league baseball team based in Shreveport, Louisiana. They were affiliated with the California Angels (1971–72), Milwaukee Brewers (1973–74 ...
of the
Texas League The Texas League is a Minor League Baseball league which has operated in the South Central United States since 1902. It is classified as a Double-A league. Despite the league's name, only its five South Division teams are actually based in the ...
. At the age of 21, he was the same age as many of the players in rookie leagues, but he went 10–9 with an ERA of 3.30 and 130 strikeouts in 158 innings in the Class AA Texas League. This earned him a promotion to the Class AAA
Fresno Grizzlies The Fresno Grizzlies are a Minor League Baseball team of the California League and the Single-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies. They are located in Fresno, California, and play their home games at Chukchansi Park, which was opened in 2002 in d ...
of the Pacific Coast League in . Although he again went 10–9 at Fresno, his ERA in 27 games was 5.07; nevertheless, he was still called up to the MLB and made two relief appearances for the Giants in 2001. The season was a more successful one for Ainsworth. He again spent much of the season with Fresno, but with better results; his ERA in 19 starts there was 3.41, and his record for the season was 8–6. He made six appearances (four starts) for the Giants during the season; although his record for the Giants was just 1–2, his ERA in 25 innings was 2.10, and he struck out 15 batters. Just as Ainsworth's career was looking very promising, it started falling prey to serious arm injuries in . He began the season in the Giants' starting rotation and made 11 starts for them; he went 5–4 with an ERA of 3.82 in 66 innings pitched. On June 3, 2003, he was placed on the disabled list with inflammation in his shoulder. He made a rehabilitation appearance with Fresno on June 15, but lasted just two innings; later in the month, doctors found that his shoulder blade was broken, an extremely unusual injury for a pitcher. On July 31, the trading deadline, the Giants traded him and Damian Moss to the Baltimore Orioles for
Sidney Ponson Sidney Alton Ponson (; born November 2, 1976) is an Aruban former Major League Baseball pitcher. As a player, Ponson stood at tall and weighed . He threw right-handed with a fastball that clocked out at 95 mph. When he made his major league ...
. He was not activated from the disabled list until September 20, and he appeared in just three games for the Orioles in 2003, pitching 2 innings in relief and accumulating an 0–1 record with an 11.57 ERA. Ainsworth recovered in time to start the season with the Orioles, but he made only seven starts before the Orioles demoted him to the Class AAA
Ottawa Lynx The Ottawa Lynx were a Minor League Baseball team that competed in the Triple-A International League (IL) from 1993 to 2007. The team's home field was Lynx Stadium in Ottawa, Ontario. Over 15 seasons, the team was an affiliate of the Montreal ...
. He pitched only four innings for the Lynx before he went on the disabled list again with right elbow inflammation; he was out until mid-August, and he finished the season by making two rehab starts for the Orioles's short-season Class A club, the
Aberdeen IronBirds The Aberdeen IronBirds are a Minor League Baseball team based in the city of Aberdeen in Harford County, Maryland. They are the High-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles and compete in the South Atlantic League. They were previously members of the ...
. Ainsworth made two appearances for the Orioles in spring training in . In three innings, he allowed five runs, for an ERA of 15.00, and his record was 0–1. He was sidelined beginning in spring training with what he would find out was a torn labrum and a torn
rotator cuff The rotator cuff is a group of muscles and their tendons that act to stabilize the human shoulder and allow for its extensive range of motion. Of the seven scapulohumeral muscles, four make up the rotator cuff. The four muscles are the supraspi ...
. He considered retirement but underwent shoulder surgery in late March. He hoped to make a return in the season, but was unsuccessful and never pitched professionally again.


Business career

In 2004, while recovering from elbow inflammation, Ainsworth began the Marucci Bat Co. along with
LSU Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near ...
Head Athletic Trainer, Jack Marucci, and former
Toronto Blue Jays The Toronto Blue Jays are a Canadian professional baseball team based in Toronto. The Blue Jays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Since 1989, the team has played its home games ...
second baseman, Joe Lawrence. They began producing bats for a small number of Major League players. In 2006, Ainsworth and Lawrence, along with the help of another former professional player, Brad Cresse, formed a new company called Big Leagues of Baton Rouge to generate revenue while the Marucci Bat Company continued to grow. All excess profits from Big Leagues of Baton Rouge were invested back into Marucci Bat Company. Ainsworth helped lead the purchase of an Amish-run wood mill in Pennsylvania in 2008. The acquisition of the mill solidified Marucci's superior wood supply, and it still supplies all of Marucci's wood today. In 2009, Ainsworth and Lawrence sold their stake in Big Leagues of Baton Rouge and joined with former White House Press Secretary, Reed Dickens, to form Marucci Sports. This company would eventually buy Marucci Bat Company in 2011. Today, Marucci Sports is the number one bat in the Big Leagues, and produces elite baseball and softball equipment. The Associated Press calls the company "bat maker to the stars", and
Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...
Magazine highlighted it as one of the top growth brands in the country.


References


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ainsworth, Kurt 1978 births Living people Aberdeen IronBirds players American expatriate baseball players in Canada Baltimore Orioles players Baseball players at the 2000 Summer Olympics Baseball players from Baton Rouge, Louisiana Catholic High School (Baton Rouge, Louisiana) alumni Fresno Grizzlies players LSU Tigers baseball players Major League Baseball pitchers Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the United States in baseball Ottawa Lynx players Salem-Keizer Volcanoes players San Francisco Giants players