by Dan Perkins (a consultant to MLB)

It's not going to be easy to compete in the big leagues, but Jorge Medina has never been intimidated by the prospect of hard work, nor is he afraid to pursue his dreams.  Since childhood, Medina has dreamt about baseball.  He played the sport competitively while in high school, and then in college, but a severe injury derailed his plans to pursue the sport professionally.  Ever since that injury, Medina has focused his attention on the business of baseball.

Today, Medina is president and CEO of Controlling the Game (CTG), a company that supplies sporting goods and active wear.  

These are exciting times for CTG and Medina.  The company recently received certification from Major League Baseball (MLB) to supply sporting equipment to players in both the major and minor leagues.  Medina was also one of three minority entrepreneurs invited to present their company's capabilities at this year's Diverse Business Partners (DBP) Program Conference.  The conference, which was held in Chicago earlier this month, brings together baseball executives to discuss supplier diversity.  The DBP Program is an initiative started by the Commissioner of Baseball, Bud Selig, to encourage the 30 clubs that make up Major League Baseball to extend procurement opportunities to minority- and women-owned businesses.  The relationship with MLB is an important milestone for CTG, a company that grew out of a compelling vision.

Inspired by a Passion to Make a Difference

The idea to establish a sporting goods company came to Medina while he was recovering from the injury that ended his hopes of a career in professional baseball.  Medina was asked to coach a group of teens in the South Bronx, ages 16 to 18.  The South Bronx is a socially and economically challenged section of New York City, but it is home for Medina - the place where he grew up and where he now lives and operates his business.

"It's not easy to handle kids from that area," Medina told an audience of DBP Program administrators.  "But in hindsight, accepting that coaching job was one of the best decisions of my life," he continued.

When Medina began coaching the teens, he quickly realized that they lacked focus and direction in their lives.  They also had few positive role models.  "I began preaching to them and telling them how to stay focused, and how to control their lives," recalled Medina. "Every day I would lecture them and I kept repeating the phrase, 'You guys have to control yourselves.'"

One day, a group of teens passed through the park where Medina was coaching.  They were wearing T-shirts with messages that Medina described as "a lot of trash talking."  As Medina read the provocative messages, a light went on in his mind.  "I realized that those kids needed something to inspire them to live better lives, to be more positive," said Medina.  "If the kids could wear something with trash talking, why couldn't they wear something to remind them to stay focus on the positive, to stay dedicated and focused on what they need to do to get ahead?"  

According to Medina, that's how the idea for Controlling the Game began.  "I kept telling the kids to control themselves, so I figured I might as well put it on a shirt."  Medina made a few shirts with the messages "Control the Game" and "Seize the Moment" placed around an attractive logo consisting of two silhouettes, one of a player standing at bat and the other of a player swinging his bat.  The shirts, with their positive messages, were well received by the community.

Although Medina was pleased with the response, he wanted to do more than just make T-shirts.  "I wanted to start a sporting goods company, and do something that appealed to the sport I love the most," declared Medina.  He began researching how to make gloves that would appeal to many of the baseball players he knows in the professional leagues.  But success did not come right away.  

"The first set of gloves we made weighed a ton," recalled Medina, who welcomed the honest feedback of professional ballplayers and friends like Derrick Jeter.  "I went back to the drawing broad, purchased more leather and developed a new glove."  The new glove was an improvement, but not a winner, so Medina persisted for several years.

Eventually Medina made a glove that met with his approval and that of professional players who continued to provide him with feedback.  The winning glove soon evolved into a line of winning gloves, and Medina began thinking seriously about adding bats to his line up.  But Medina first had to learn all of the steps involved in making a competitive line of bats, from the selection of woods to the curing process, to the manufacturing of the wood into bats.  "If you're a guy from the South Bronx, you really don't know a lot about wood," said the 32 year old Medina.  "It took me a long time to learn how to purchase wood, and how to go through all of the steps required to make bats that could be certified by Major League Baseball."

Medina has had his eye on Major League Baseball for a long time, and he was willing to do whatever it took to get his products certified.  Just weeks before to the 2004 DBP Program Conference, CTG received the certification needed to market its bats and gloves to players in both the major and minor leagues.

Now that Medina has MLB certification, he is eager to market his athletic goods to urban youth as well as professional players.  "I think we can add real value to Major League Baseball," Medina told the gathering of DBP Program administrators.  "Basketball may be attractive to urban youth now, but we aim to help MLB change that by encouraging urban youth to think about baseball," he continued.

Joining Medina during his presentation was Eric Vinson, CTG's Executive Vice President and General Counsel.  Vinson told the administrators that CTG's strategy for penetrating the big leagues was to go directly to the players and have them practice with CTG's bats and gloves.  He stated that CTG has already been doing that for over a year.  With MLB certification, players will now be able to use CTG's equipment in official games.  

As MLB players begin to have success with CTG's products, Vinson and Medina plan to market that success to other baseball leagues.  Vinson told the DBP administrators that he and Medina intend to pursue opportunities down the line - all the way to Little League.  The two men also plan to have GTG's apparel line in retail outlets this summer.

A Productive Exchange

The DBP Administrators were delighted to be introduced to a minority firm so eager and prepared to enter the highly visible, but competitive field of athletic supplies.  Immediately following the presentation, DBP administrators began questioning Medina and Vinson about their company and its products.  Several administrators identified potentially significant opportunities for CTG, including the possibility of supplying minor league clubs with equipment, and supplying MLB clubs with promotional give-away items such as bats, gloves, and T-shirts.  Most clubs give such items to fans on special promotional days throughout the season.

The exchange between Medina and the DBP Program Administrators was a high mark of the 2004 conference.  "The targeting of opportunities and the immediate exchange of ideas between vendors and our DBP Program managers is precisely why we added vendor presentations to our conference lineup," said Wendy Lewis who oversees MLB's supplier diversity initiative for the Commissioner's Office.

A vendor must be an established supplier to MLB or to a club, and have an outstanding service record to be considered as a potential presenter at a DBP conference.  Lewis is confident that future presentations will yield equally promising opportunities for both vendors and MLB clubs.

Although Medina was pleased with the favorable response to his presentation, he had little time to savor the moment.  The next morning, Medina was heading down to spring training camps in Florida to visit ballplayers who are also personal friends.  Medina is hoping that they will take his products onto the field this season.

Given his commitment to quality and his personal determination to succeed, Medina is likely to be controlling the game for a very long time.

The End