Grownup reinvents childhood baseball game
August 27, 2008
By J.B. Wogan
Doug Strohm’s game will be sold by a prominent toy retailer
Doug Strohm prepares to pitch. Strohm’s game Ballpark Classics, is designed to mimic actual baseball in a more detailed way than its competitors. Photo by J.B. Wogan
It’s difficult not to see a little of Tom Hanks in Doug Strohm.
The lanky Sammamish man, originally from Wapakoneta, Ohio, is an adult with an adult job – chief strategist for an interactive marketing company – but here he is, hunched over, knees on the company carpet, expounding on a childhood dream to build a classic game, straight out of Hanks’ 1988 comedy “Big.”
The game, fittingly, is called Ballpark Classics, a tabletop baseball game in the tradition of foosball.
“Our goal is to have a game that lasts for years and years,” Strohm said.
It’s Strohm’s version of his favorite arcade pinball game from a county fair that used to pass by his hometown in mid-August. Strohm built prototypes of the game starting at age 15. Ballpark Classics is an attempt to recreate and improve upon that experience, he said.
The game is designed to endure years of play with almost reckless abandon, he explained.
“There’s no need to baby it. It’s built to last, so you’re not going to hurt the game,” he said.
The game’s first unusual feature is the plastic pitching tube; all of Ballpark Classics’ competitors use a spring release mechanism – the industry term is “plunger” – as in most tilted pinball games.
Ballpark Classics is not tilted and there’s no plunger. You send a metal ball down the tube however you like.
Strohm’s technique involves pressing the ball down with his thumb, typically at an angled position – that allows for a curve in the trajectory – and launching the pitch with as much backspin as he can muster.
Strohm has lived on Pine Lake for the last five years with his wife Christine, son Wyatt, and two daughters Olivia and Audrey. His children are 19, 16 and 14, respectively.
Strohm is building and marketing the game he had envisioned since childhood.
In February, FAO Schwarz, a toy retailer, purchased the game for its winter holiday catalogue, set to debut this October.
“I like it because it really hits that classic toy look and feel,” said Andrew Triana, an FAO Schwarz buyer.
When a demo of the game arrived at FAO Schwarz’s office in New York, employees started playing with it during weekly meetings, according to Triana.
“That’s pretty unusual,” he said.
“It’s kind of a dream come true,” Strohm said.
“We’re rooting for Doug – sorry for the pun – to knock it out of the park,” said Tim Garrigan, co-founder of the marketing company that employs Strohm.
Strohm will tell you it’s more than the pitching tube that sets his game apart from its competitors: the turf is a uniform felt surface to maintain consistency on hits, the back wall is a nod to Rangers Ballpark with its multiple heights and angles, the dimensions of the outfield are built to scale and a ramp in shallow right field allows for realistic homeruns to soar out of the stadium.
Small slots along the back wall with thin felt curtains serve as targets for earning singles, doubles and triples.
Strohm said he placed the slots in areas where a hitter would have the best statistical chance of earning each type of hit given the dimensions of the field.
“It’s crafted so well and it’s fun,” Triana said. “It’s not furniture.”
“You can start to throw curves, changeups, you can throw a mean fastball. One of the great things about the game is that you can hide those pitches,” Garrigan said. “Folks get pretty competitive with it.”
Strohm said the homegrown, made-in-the-U.S.A. materials, from the hardwood maple bats to the birch or maple frame, might add a special appeal. And as he points out, concerned parents don’t have to worry about any lead paint with his toy.
Reporter J.B. Wogan can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 247, or jbwogan@isspress.com.
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