Mike Jirik and Tazio Grivetti noticed fewer young people playing baseball, and saw it as an opportunity.
The longtime friends and former co-workers at Caterpillar decided to come up with a sport that had more action, less down time, and greater appeal for all ages and skill levels.
The result? WooshBall.
“You watch kids or adults play baseball, the waiting for someone to hit takes a long time,” said Grivetti. “WooshBall is super-fast-paced, because everybody’s hitting every time.”
That’s because there are no strikeouts, and pitchers have a full bag of balls to throw until the batter makes contact. But that’s only a couple of the many differences – beginning with the bat that gives the game its name.
“It has high tension strings for a barrel, and when it’s swung it makes a really cool ‘wooshing’ sound,” said Jirik. “The more wooshing that happens, the more fun kids are having. And we wanted a game in WooshBall to be something where there was a lot of swinging and a lot of hitting and a lot of action.”
Grivetti and Jirik say they wanted their game to appeal to players who struggle with hitting or making a play in baseball.
“We designed the game to entice every person to play,” said Jirik. “Since there are no strikeouts, that’s one of the major fears, if you will, that people have playing baseball. You take that away and anybody can come up and swing the bat and hit the ball.”
Not only are there no strikeouts, but the balls are softer – because fielders get runners out by hitting them with the ball (below the neck) while they’re running between bases.
Oh, and the running is different too. Players can circle the bases in either direction to make a complete loop and score. And there can be more than one player on a base at a time. And the number of bases and size of the field can vary.
“Baseball is a game that’s kind of exclusive,” said Jirik. “What we really wanted to do is to say, ‘well, let’s take maybe the best aspects of baseball, but then kind of turn the script?’ and say, ‘how could we entice more people to play a bat and ball like game to actually draw the most number of people to a game and have fun playing it?’”
Grivetti said their concept grew after his partner took a vacation and saw kids playing baseball, but using tennis rackets and balls.
“The woosh bat was really the genesis, then the game itself evolved over time, because when you’re playing with it – what happens in with creative people? You keep coming up with ways to make this experience better and better and better,” said Grivetti.
The inventors say WooshBall is growing, and over two years they’ve sold bats in over half the U.S. states. Now they’re kicking it up a notch this weekend when college students from Brazil visit Bradley University and play in WooshBall’s first “Collegiate Indoor World Championship” at the Markin Recreation Center.
“We’ve got a fun night planned, right? They will have uniforms per their country, with ‘WooshBall World Championship’ emblazoned across the front – which is really important, because when there’s that many people running around, it helps to know which team they’re on,” said Grivetti.
Jirik says they’re hoping increased visibility will help the sport of WooshBall grow even more.
“If it plays in Peoria, it’ll play anywhere, and we’re having fun,” he said. “It’s just really about getting exposure to the game and having people experience the fun of it, and it will eventually take off.”
