Sam Holman is looking for another Barry Bonds.
No, Holman is not the general manager of the San Francisco Giants.
Holman, 60, is the founder of the Sam Bat Co., of Ottawa, the privately held maker of the now-famous maple bats that Bonds started swinging in 1999 – just about the time his home run numbers took off.
Holman’s sales numbers took off as well.
Sam Bat has averaged annual sales growth of 34 percent since Bonds switched to his maple bat from the tradition white ash bats used in baseball since Ruth ruled the roost.
“Players have told me many times: ‘We watch everything [Barry] does,'” Holman told The Post last week.
And how.
After getting former Blue Jay slugger Joe Carter as his first player to use maple bats in 1998, and having Carter turn Bonds onto the much harder wood, it was easy.
After all, in the six years Bonds has swung a Sam Bat, he has averaged a home run every 8.5 at bats, compared to a homer every 12.9 at bats in the previous six years with an ash bat – or a 52 percent jump. Steroid-fueled or not, that jump in production certainly wasn’t missed by players.
When the season opens, Holman will sell 7,000 bats to 130 Major League Baseball players. That’s 18 percent of all MLB players, including Carlos Beltran and Doug Mientkiewicz of the Mets and Tino Martinez and Gary Sheffield of the Yankees. Even pitching aces Randy Johnson and Kevin Brown swung maple bats when they were in the National League.
Holman said Sam Bat sells 10,000 bats to a collection of minor league players, professional players in other countries and amateur players through retail stores around the world. The company does not release sales of profit information.
The success has also brought the big boys – Mizuno, Easton and Louisville Slugger – into the game.
Holman said he is not worried about the competition. “We design and build our own machines, so no one can really duplicate the bats we produce.”
But with Bonds out for a half-season – or longer – this is the first time Holman will not have his No. 1 salesman swinging his 34-inch, 32-ounce Sam Bat, the one emblazoned with the huge bat creature logo, leading the way.
“Barry used the same size and weight bat ever since 1999, except in 2001, when he was chasing Mark McGwire’s 70-home run season record,” Holman said.
“In the dog days of summer, Barry switched to a 31-½ ounce bat, thinking he could swing it faster.”
Holman said he was sitting in a hotel room on a business trip watching the Giants play when Bonds ripped two drives off the top of the wall, missing a home run by inches.
“After the game I spoke with Barry and told him that for the love of a half-ounce he missed two home runs. I told him if he was swinging his regular 32-ounce bat, the balls would have gone over the wall.
“There was a silence on the phone for a while. I thought I had lost the connection,” Holman said, recalling the conversation.
Bonds eventually agreed with Holman. He has never gone back to a lighter bat.
“In fact,” Holman added, “if he would never have changed his bat, I’m sure the single season home run record would be 75 instead of 73.”