After Bill’s Bullpen was devastated in the 1989 Loma Prieta
earthquake, owner Bill Mifsud Jr. said he faced a real
make-or-break moment.
After Bill’s Bullpen was devastated in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, owner Bill Mifsud Jr. said he faced a real make-or-break moment.
The store, which sells sports memorabilia and comic books, had been around for two years, but Mifsud considered calling it quits. In order to get the business going again, he’d have to find a new location and rebuild his inventory. Besides, Mifsud had planned to work in the sports media or become a teacher; running a retail shop wasn’t what he’d envisioned doing with his life.
But people began stopping Mifsud on the street and asking when the store would reopen, and the owner of San Benito Glass offered him a new spot just a block away from the store’s old location.
“I thought maybe that was a sign,” Mifsud said.
Bill’s Bullpen reopened its doors just two weeks after the quake. And the old building – which stood on what is now a grassy field on the southwest corner of San Benito and Fourth streets – was eventually leveled, boxes of cards and comics still inside.
“If they build anything there, I guarantee they’re going to dig up comic books, baseball cards and other stuff,” Mifsud said.
But is a store that sells “kids’ stuff” really that important? For some people, it is.
Aromas resident Ramon Segovia said he for one is glad Mifsud didn’t close his doors.
“It’s almost needed,” Segovia said. “There’s no one else around for miles.”
Segovia said he started patronizing Bill’s Bullpen eight years ago, when he was in junior high school. Stores in the surrounding area had closed down, and Bill’s Bullpen was one of the few locations to remain standing after the comic book industry’s financial turbulence in the mid-1990s.
Segovia makes the drive from Aromas to Hollister once a week, and during each visit, he buys around $100 worth of comics. But Segovia said he doesn’t just show up, fork over his cash and leave.
“One of the reasons I come is just to chat with someone I’ve known for years,” Segovia said. “And we don’t just talk about comics.”
Mifsud said his personal connection is key to the store’s continued survival. The day after a big game, Mifsud is ready for the calls from his regulars who want to go over the statistics and the big plays.
“Sometimes I feel more like a bartender,” he said.
Although Mifsud has three employees, he’s the only one who works at the store full-time. Being behind the counter five or six days a week allows him to keep abreast of what his customers want from the store, he said.
Mifsud has plenty of other thoughts about how he’s stayed in business for 20 years – not bad for someone who didn’t plan to go into business at all.
Bill’s Bullpen was actually founded by Mifsud’s father, Bill Sr., a roofer who saw the store as a way to ease back into working life after suffering a heart attack.
But as the senior Mifsud recovered, he decided to return to roofing. His son, meanwhile, was working for the sports department of a local news program. Landing the job fulfilled a lifelong dream, but Mifsud wasn’t satisfied.
“It wasn’t all it was cracked up to be,” he said.
So 10 months after Bill’s Bullpen opened, Mifsud took the reins. It was rough at first, he acknowledged, since he had no experience or training. But with his father’s help, the store survived and grew. Mifsud even opened a second location in south Hollister in 1994, although he shut it down 11 years later due to his concerns with the lease.
Mifsud said his store is a social hub for sports fans and comic fans.
“We want to create an environment to explore and develop their hobbies while being a place where others can relive their childhood memories,” he said.
Local real estate agent Michael Dommert said he’s been a lifelong sports fan, and he met Mifsud through mutual friends. Dommert noted that Mifsud isn’t just the guy to contact for baseball cards.
“He has sources for lots of sports stuff, like tickets,” he said.
Eventually, Dommert got hooked on collecting baseball cards, and in three years he’s amassed a collection of hundreds of cards worth thousands of dollars.
And as he helps his grandson write a report on Barry Bonds, Dommert is hoping to pass his love of baseball on to another generation.
Mifsud said his store has had ups and downs, as local teams do well and then do badly, and as fads come and go. Mifsud acknowledged that he would never completely rule out selling the store and moving on to something different.
But long after the earthquake, Mifsud said it’s still his customers who keep him excited about work. It’s a thrill, he said, to see someone – especially an excited child who’s just received his allowance – waiting for him to open the store.
“When you’re having a bad day, you see that they want to be here, and you feel a lot better,” Mifsud said.
