Krave Jerky founder Jon Sebastiani buys Sonoma Stompers

Local food and wine entrepreneur Jon Sebastiani has purchased the independent Sonoma Stompers baseball club, promising to use the opportunity to enrich the community and have fun at the same time.

Sebastiani, 45, founder of Krave Jerky and Sonoma Brands food products, bought the club from Eric and Lani Gullotta. The price was not disclosed. The Gullottas bought the three-year-old team in 2015.

The Stompers are one of four teams in the Pacific Association of Professional Baseball Clubs and were league champs last season.

Sebastiani, the former managing partner of Wine.com and president of Viansa Winery, said his latest acquisition reaffirms his commitment to the Sonoma area and the preservation of the area’s strong tourism, family values and traditions.

“A company I built and sold afforded me the opportunity to do these things and it came out of left field,” he said Friday. “It’s a special opportunity to participate in the community in a way that I can, hopefully, give back. That’s the important message for me. It’s an honor to be able to do this in the community.”

He said he plans to create partnerships with community groups including the Boys and Girls Club, mentoring programs, the Hanna Boys Center and others to attract fans to the ballpark and raise money for worthy causes.

Born to Sam and Vicki Sebastiani, Jon Sebastiani was raised in Sonoma, built his career and started his family there, and still lives locally. He grew up working around food, wine and the hospitality industry, sparking an interest in the business side of the family enterprise.

He managed sales and marketing for Viansa, the winery his parents built, eventually becoming president.

Out of an entrepreneurship class in his Berkeley-Columbia Executive MBA program, Sebastiani created the Krave Jerky line.

He sold that brand to chocolate icon The Hershey Company in 2015 for about $220 million and has since expanded his holdings into a number of different food ventures, including Dang and Smashmallow snack foods.

Sebastiani promises to bring some of that innovative thinking to the Stompers - who are no strangers to creative promotions already.

The club attracted national attention when it signed the first openly gay professional baseball player in 2015 and the first female players in 2016, eventually signing three women.

In 2014, the year the team began, former Boston Red Sox and Montreal Expos left-handed pitcher Bill “Spaceman” Lee threw for the Stompers, becoming the oldest player to win a professional baseball game.

Former A’s star Jose Canseco’s appearances have been fan favorites as well.

Three women played for the Stompers last year, a move made possible in part by a sponsorship with Francis Ford Coppola’s Virginia Dare Winery in Geyserville.

The winery remains a major sponsor of the team.

More creative promotions likely will be rolled out this coming season to attract fans to the stadium, Sebastiani said.

“We’re coming up with creative ways that we can benefit the community and make the games really fun,” he said. “The most important thing is that the Stompers be a vehicle for wholesome family entertainment.”

Events with San Francisco Giants players and other big names may be on the schedule - Sebastiani has relationships with ex-49er Vernon Davis and Ayesha Curry, the wife of Warriors star Stephen Curry, whose name is rising in foodie circles.

Buying a small-town independent baseball club isn’t just a lark, he said, nor is it expected to be a profit-making venture.

“I don’t expect to make money,” he said. “The purpose of this is to create something. It’s a community team that wants to give back to the community. That’s the special thing.”

Sebastiani said he obsessively collected baseball cards as a youth - cards he says he still has today - and baseball was his favorite sport growing up. He played left field, which is what he named the LLC he used to purchase the club.

“I played all through school, on the varsity in high school and considered playing in college,” he said. “I am a huge fan of the game.”

Sebastiani has assembled an advisory board of locals with a passion for baseball, including parents and community leaders, to brainstorm ideas for fun fan experiences.

They will also be able to sample an array of food choices at the games, including his Sonoma Brands and Krave products and those of other sponsors, as well as wine from Coppola’s Virginia Dare.

Business and baseball operations will remain solely in the hands of general manager Theo Fightmaster.

Next year, the Pacific league hopes to welcome a fifth team based out of Napa.

You can reach Lori A. Carter at 707-521-5470 or lori.carter@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @loriacarter.