Former Major League Baseball pitching prospect John Thomas had a vision.
It came to him as he sat ion his couch at 2 a.m. watching a Boston Red Sox documentary.
Thomas, a Righetti High School alum, wanted to build an indoor batting cage facility for the public to use.
“This community is very rich in baseball history so I wanted to open up a facility to help the kids,” he said. “There’s not really anywhere to play and practice. The wind in the afternoon gets pretty crazy.”
There was only one problem.
Every building he found that was big enough was in an industrial or manufacturing zone.
“The only other way was to buy land and build a building,” he said. “We weren’t going to do that.”
Thomas eventually found a new 20,000 square foot location on Skyway Drive. It was perfect for his new business, ProForm Sports Academy that features 10 batting cages and state-of-the-art analytic equipment for hitting and pitching, but he still needed a conditional use permit to open.
While watching the Red Sox documentary, he noticed something, however.
In the background of the interviews, there was a clubhouse worker rubbing up baseballs with a mud mixture.
Under today’s Major League Baseball rules and guidelines, “the umpire shall inspect the baseballs and ensure they are properly rubbed so that the gloss is removed.”
This is done for a few reasons, one of which is the safety of the hitter.
According to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, a Cleveland baseball player died in 1920 as the result of being hit in the head with a pitched ball. Hitters are sometimes blinded when the sun hits the white surface of new, shiny baseballs.
A second reason is the safety of the pitcher.
“You want to wear down those seams or they can cause a pitcher a lot of pain when they throw a brand new ball,” Thomas said. “You can get blisters.”
He figured he could manufacture his own mud for baseballs, which would assist in obtaining the conditional use permit required for opening a business in a manufacturing zone.
“It would help supplement the cost for the batting cages while helping the community,” Thomas said.
Thomas didn’t care that it was three o’clock in the morning. He immediately looked up what ingredients Major League Baseball teams used to rub up baseballs.
The most common mixture was Lena Blackburne Baseball Rubbing Mud. The product was established in 1938 from Longport, New Jersey and is still being sold today.
“It’s a combination of red clay, water and dirt,” Thomas said. “There’s clay in Lopez Lake, Pismo Beach, even in my backyard. Why can’t I do it here?”
Thomas knew he would have to test his new product, and the batting cages would be a good place to do so.
“Analytics have come a long way,” he said. “Let’s test these new baseballs while the community can get some hitting in.”
Cody Smith has been the Pioneer Valley High School baseball coach for the past eight years.
While he maintains his field and can set up batting practice for his players on mild weather days, he knows that it is difficult to fight with Mother Nature.
“Any type of water is a problem,” Smith said. “It puddles in certain places and you just have to try and adapt.”
The baseball team has even tried to practice inside the school’s gymnasium but there are still challenges.
“We have three teams and softball has two. So that’s five teams all vying for gym space,” Smith said. “You also have boys volleyball in there practicing so it can get crowded.”
Thomas said with the new space, he can disassemble the nets for the batting catches, making it easier for teams to practice not only hitting but working on infield drills, as well.
St. Joseph High School baseball coach Tino Estrada said will it be nice to get out of the bad weather and give his players a new location to hit with some instruction.
“John knows what he is doing,” Estrada said. “Being in a new facility with new equipment and coaching, all of that stuff helps.”
Thomas hopes to open as quickly as possible after the planning commission vote, set for Wednesday, July 1.
He wants his new business will take off with a hopeful opening date in late July or early August, but the goal remains the same. He wants to be there for the community he grew up in, where fell in love with the game of baseball.
“If I actually manufacture my own mud, sell it and if it takes off, that would be great but, if not, I can give it to local schools and Allan Hancock College to use while members of the community are able to use the batting cages to help them with baseball,” Thomas said. “It helps everybody.”