Baseball agent Bo McKinnis has represented 89 major leaguers, including former Vanderbilt pitcher David Price.

In Moneyball, Michael Lewis’ bestselling book about the Oakland A’s, there is a passage in which J.P. Ricciardi, the General Manager of the Toronto Blue Jays, talks with an unnamed baseball agent. That agent, it turns out, is Owen alumnus James “Bo” McKinnis, the President of McKinnis Sports Management in Nashville. Unlike some in his line of work, McKinnis does not mind going unnoticed. In fact, that is exactly how he likes it.

“From day one I’ve wanted my players to be the stars. That’s the way it’s supposed to be,” he explains. “When I meet folks and tell them what I do, they’re a little surprised. That just shows that I’m doing my business the right way.”

While McKinnis enjoys anonymity outside the game, his name is well-regarded within it. Over the course of his career he has represented 89 major leaguers, including David Price, the former Vanderbilt pitcher and No. 1 pick of the Tampa Bay Rays. That success, he says, can be attributed to a piece of advice that pitcher Jeff Brantley offered him when first starting out: “Don’t contact the players. If you do a good job, they will come to you.”

As counterintuitive as that sounds, the strategy has worked because, as McKinnis puts it, “The best scouts are a player’s teammates.” He adds, “That’s why I let my players bring clients to me. They know what I’m looking for and who will represent me well.”

McKinnis admits he never intended to become an agent. His very first client—a player on the Mississippi State baseball team that he helped manage as an undergrad—had to talk him into the idea. Even years later when he was at Owen, he seemed set on pursuing a career on Wall Street. The game, however, never loosened its grip on him. The skills that he honed while earning an MBA—negotiating, accounting and entrepreneurship, among others—ended up laying the foundation for what he does today.

“God gave me two loves—business and baseball—and I’ve been able to put them together,” he says. “It’s the best of both worlds.”

Vinyl records are enjoying a resurgence thanks to Ashworth and United Record Pressing.

Cris Ashworth likes to say that he saw Elvis every day. Not in person, that is, but on the press at United Record Pressing, a vinyl record manufacturing company that he owned for 10 years until health problems forced him to step away. “Elvis was always good for a couple hundred thousand records. It was just amazing to me,” he recalls.

What’s perhaps more amazing is that he’s not talking about the 1960s or ’70s, but rather the past year or two. Like “The King,” who had a famous comeback of his own, vinyl records are enjoying a resurgence, thanks in no small part to Ashworth and United. In 2008, 1.88 million newly pressed LPs were sold in the United States—a jump of nearly 900,000 units from the year before.

Ashworth, an accountant by training, admits that he didn’t have the slightest inkling about record manufacturing when he purchased the Nashville-based company in 1999. But he did have a keen understanding of trends, which he credits to his education at Owen. “Being able to decide if it’s the right time to do something is really important. I found that my timing was not bad,” he says.

Not bad indeed. Although there were plenty of doubters, Ashworth saw an opportunity to re-energize the company and the market as a whole. He initiated cost-saving measures and expanded United’s manufacturing capabilities to include both 45s and LPs. He also created a Web site to appeal to a younger generation of customers, including musicians looking to get noticed—“the kids in a garage who have a dream,” as Ashworth calls them. Today United produces up to 40,000 records a day and owns most of the market share.

Though not a musician himself, Ashworth is a kindred spirit to those kids in the garage. He understands what it’s like to pursue a dream and has advice for anyone who wants to do the same: “Don’t wait too long. Get the experience under your belt and get your tickets punched.”

Or as Elvis used to sing, “It’s now or never.”

Kimberly Jackson was inspired to enter the wine business after helping found Owen’s wine appreciation club, Cork and Barrel.

Every bottle of wine has a story to tell. It’s a story written as much by Mother Nature—through the soil, climate and grapes themselves—as it is by the human hand that crafts the finished product. Kimberly Jackson, MBA’01, has learned this firsthand as President of JAX Vineyards, a boutique California winery she runs with her brother, Trent. 

“When people decide to buy a bottle of wine, of course they want quality, but they also want to know how the wine is made. They want names and labels that they can identify with, and it’s a very personal thing,” she says.

Bringing the JAX story to a broader audience is Jackson’s mission at the moment. So far she’s succeeded in landing distribution deals for her wine across the nation. JAX also has gotten a boost from fortuitous product placement on HBO’s hit show Entourage, as well as a recent appearance on Wine Spectator magazine’s “Ten Wineries to Watch” list. 

Ask Jackson the secret to JAX’s success and she’s quick to point to the land where the cabernet grapes are grown. The property in Calistoga is home to 40-year-old vines—some of the oldest in Napa Valley. Although the vines don’t yield nearly as many grapes as younger ones do, their deep roots allow them to grow without irrigation. The resulting fruit is dense, thick-skinned and rich in flavor. “Our grapes work a little harder to survive,” as Jackson puts it.

Jackson herself knows a thing or two about working hard to survive. Starting a business from scratch has required her to wear many different hats—from marketing to forecasting to invoicing and operations—but she credits Owen with giving her the framework and confidence to succeed.

And that’s all the more reason to root for JAX Vineyards. It’s an underdog story that many can identify with. A story just waiting to be uncorked.