About
A big idea can come from anywhere at anytime – just keep a firm grip.
My son gets the first hit ever with a Pro-XR bat
A few summers ago, I narrowly missed hitting my youngest son with a baseball bat that had accidentally slipped from my hands while we were hitting hickory nuts. It was one of those slow motion moments where everything stops and you feel your heart pound one beat at a time. The bat released from my hands and was spinning in a straight line for my son’s head. Incredibly, the rotation of the bat was such that it flew by without touching him, landing on the other side of the yard. It was that moment I knew something wasn’t right with the way baseball bats were designed. That moment in my backyard was the start of a process which lead me to develop the Pro-XR bat.
The first prototype of the Pro-XR
I researched bats, baseball history, manufacturers, the anatomy of the hand, swing mechanics and the multiple rules that govern baseball bats. I had a local St. Louis craftsman turning ash bats with unfinished handles so I could carve out my ideas and test them in the cages. As I refined the designs the simplicity and effectiveness of the angled knob became clear. I researched bat patents to see if I was on to something new or just walking down someone else’s path. There is nothing worse than working through an idea only to find someone else has already thought of it – the Pro-XR bat is completely unique. The patent process is a whole different story but in simple terms research, research, research and hire a really smart patent attorney.
Prepping sensors at Washington University School of Medicine
With the patent submitted, I began testing the bat with local players at all levels of baseball in cages all over the Midwest. Through some well-connected friends I was able to test the knob at Washington University School of Medicine with a leading doctor of biomechanics using cutting edge pressure sensing technology. The combined results from the batting cages and W.U.’s medical school confirmed my theory that a standard bat knob acts like a speed bump to a player’s swing and the angled knob of the Pro-XR provides a unique advantage.
Kansas University's John Allman Taking His First Cuts
The Pro-XR bat really does improve a batter’s grip, control and quality of swing – it even reduces the incidence of injury. It performed the way I intended and now I needed to determine if it was legal for use in play. All of my research and interpretation of the rules indicated that it was good to go, but my opinion wasn’t what mattered. After many phone calls, e-mails and shipping bats around the country, I received confirmation that my bat design was legal for play and within the rules of both professional baseball leagues and national college athletics.
Making a Pro-XR is unlike any other bat making process currently being used. Since the Pro-XR knob is at an angle a typical lathe can’t make it alone, it requires cutting-edge four-point lathe technology and CAD-CAM design. Currently we turn and finish the Pro-XR bats up to the knob then complete each knob by hand in our shop. The process is time consuming but the end product is well worth the extra effort. We have new high-tech manufacturing in development and will launch production later this summer.
Grady Making The First Pro-XR Ergonomic Bats
I didn’t set out to develop a new kind of baseball bat or change the way baseball bats are made – I simply wanted to make bats safer and easier to swing. What resulted is the Pro-XR bat – the smoothest swinging, most comfortable, most ergonomically sound, quickest bat in baseball. You’ll never know what your true swing is like until you swing a Pro-XR.
