Frank’s Sport 35” Wood Fungo Bat

Andy Weissman was born in the Bronx, a stone’s throw from Yankee Stadium and a mile and a half from Frank’s Sports Shop.

Like many families in the fifties, his dad loaded his into the car and set out for California. Andy enjoyed the excellent weather and excelled in baseball that led him to play in the very competitive Junior College conference on the west coast.

After college, Andy coached at the Junior College level before heading off to Europe where he coached teams in Slovakia, Austria, Hungary and Ukraine.

While in Slovakia, Andy, along with some of his friends, founded YAYA Baseball Company whose main product would be baseball bats. While searching for the appropriate wood, Andy teamed up with an elder woodsman, who introduced him to a specific beech wood, known for its strength, found in the Ukranian forest.

YaYa bats soon became the biggest seller of bats throughout Europe.

Meanwhile in the Bronx, Moe Stein, son of Frank, founder of Frank’s Sports Shop, has taken Frank’s Sports Shop from a local mom and pop store to a nationally known brand. Moe’s son, Ron, who now operates the store, forged a more diverse customer base: MLB, hospitals, entertainers, foreign baseball leagues and members of the corporate world while employing 20 local residents.

And in one unique timely moment, their paths crossed, bringing to the baseball world, Frank’s Sport Fungo bats made exclusively by YAYA bats, of Ukrainian beech wood.

Now this is a Bronx Tale!