For a few weeks, it seemed like it would never stop raining.
And then once the rain stopped, the heat was turned up.
Mother Nature’s curveballs may have caused the area’s baseball and softball players to go searching for an indoor batting facility that can allow them the chance to keep their swing through the rainouts and heat waves.
That search might end with the newest indoor batting facility in the Lehigh Valley. It’s called D-Bat Union and it’s located at 702 Union Boulevard in east Allentown, right down the street from Coca-Cola Park.
It’s fully air-conditioned and comfortable with plenty of seating for those who just want to watch. The building was once Boulevard Bowling Lanes years ago, and now, instead of the sound of bowling balls crashing into pins, you’ll hear baseballs getting smacked around by bats. The only strikes are those of the swing-and-miss variety.
The place is run by three local guys with baseball backgrounds — Nazareth High assistant baseball and legion coach Jason Brown, Freedom athletic director and former Nazareth coach Nate Stannard, and former Freedom coach Nick D’Amico.
D’Amico’s daughter, Maya, is coming off an outstanding softball career at Freedom and is headed to Lehigh University.
Nazareth High School assistant baseball coach Jason Brown is one of the owners of the new D-BAT Union, an indoor batting facility for baseball and softball players on the East Side of Allentown. (Keith Groller/The Morning Call)
“This actually started as a concept when Nate and I were coaching back at Nazareth in the early 2000s,” Brown said. “Nate brought it up all the time. This is all he ever wanted to do. He wanted to coach baseball, and he said he would love to have a facility for baseball training. We looked into some things back then, but in 2005 and 2006, we were new parents and just getting our kids underway and it was just too much of a risk to take at the time.
“Nate had to get out of coaching after 2006 because he was offered a job as a principal, and the life path just wasn’t allowing for it at that time. Fast forward to 2020 and the time around the pandemic, and I got a tip on this franchise, which was based in Texas, and I went down to a facility in Alabama, and they told me all about it. I looked into it, and I flew to Texas in late February of 2020.
“I came back from there with a whole new outlook and was really excited about this being something we could do, and then the whole shutdown happened about two weeks later. So the pandemic put everything on hold for a while. It was too big of a venture to start without any certainty about the future with the pandemic.”
In 2023, Brown and Stannard rekindled the idea, and D’Amico, a Freedom teacher, was in Colorado with his daughter’s travel softball team and visited a D-Bat franchise there.
“Nick said it was an amazing place and we could use something like it around here,” Brown said. “So, that’s how everything came together. It was a long, arduous process, especially getting the financing for it and getting the loans to get it started. It’s not a cheap industry because it’s a lot more than a few nets and a machine.
“Then we needed to find a facility, and it turned out that St. Luke’s was looking to get rid of this facility because they had gotten into the old ice-skating rink in Whitehall. And they wanted to focus more on that facility.”
A partnership was formed where St. Luke’s still has about a third of the facility for its training purposes, while the other sections are filled with batting cages.
Brown said that as coaches and with Stannard being an athletic director, there’s a need for indoor space.
“Teams are reaching out to us for fall and winter workout schedules,” Brown said. “People keep asking us if we’re running a travel team, and we are not. D-BAT’s stance is that this is not for travel ball only. Other places kind of insist that you have to be part of the travel ball organization to use the facility, and that’s not us. We have no affiliation with any travel team, and we’re open to anyone. If you want a slogan for us, I would say that we’re trying to make teams better, one player at a time.
“We want to get the kids in here and get them trained and get them with instructors to just work on their skills whether it’s with our youth camp or whatever. The goal is to mold them into better baseball players. And it’s not just baseball either.
“I have talked with other D-BAT owners across the country, and there are places where they have very little softball interest. That’s not the case here. We have a lot of interest in softball, maybe even more so than baseball.”
Brown said the key is keeping the rates for membership low.
“We want to make it affordable,” he said. “We want to get people in here and get the word out. We didn’t open until June 1 when the high school season was pretty much over.”
The facility’s turf area covers just under 20,000 square feet. There are 12 batting and four machine-operated cages that will pitch baseball, softball, and slo-pitch softball, and you can set the speed and height of the pitches and mix in curveballs for baseball and top-spin, back-spin, and knuckleballs for softball.
“There are eight different speed options and seven height options to pick from,” Brown said. “So you can customize the machine to each individual player, whether they are tall, short or whatever. We have a cage where the mat is moved up and you can use the lowest speed setting for coach-pitch kids. The pitches are coming a little slower and at a shorter distance. And we use real baseballs, these are not cage balls.
There is also a pro shop with the latest in equipment, and those who sign up for memberships receive discounts on their purchases.
“We bring a lot of baseball knowledge to the facility,” Brown said. “We felt there was a void in the Valley for a place like this, especially in the winter months. Teams are always looking to get inside and have a turf area that’s big enough for a 60-foot infield, so it’s great for softball and Little League baseball. It’s a little short for full-size baseball, but a lot of teams practice inside auxiliary gyms, and this is all turf, so we can get some work done on our field.
“Teams are definitely going to benefit from a place like this. And remember, no matter how much rain we have outside, it’s always dry in here.”
D-BAT stands for “Developing Beliefs, Attitudes, and Traditions.”
For more information, call Brown, D’Amico or Stannard at 484-306-3228.