Kenny Lofton, who has watched many of his peers be inducted into the Hall of Fame since his retirement in 2007, believes he simply came at the wrong time, or else he would be sitting next to them in Cooperstown and being recognized. I believe it will.
Lofton, a six-time All-Star and four-time Gold Glove-winning center fielder who batted .299 with 2,428 hits and 622 stolen bases over his 18-year career, had only one flaw in his game.
He did not hit a home run and racked up just 130 home runs while playing all but four years of his career during the steroid era.
“I was one of those players who was ignored because I played in the era of home runs and steroid guys,” Lofton told USA TODAY Sports. “It was a big part of the game, but it was like my play didn’t mean anything. I did my job being at the top of the order. I went out on base and just tried to help the team. It was.
“Right now, it’s all about launch and home runs. Now, it’s about launch angle and home runs. In my day, I was working.
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“It’s disappointing to see how the game went.”
That’s one reason Lofton partnered with former Philadelphia Phillies GM Ruben Amaro and his brother, Slug Ball co-founder David Amaro. It’s the baseball version of Topgolf, utilizing a 4×4 situational hitting format, and will be the first of at least six events on May 10 at Trenton Thunder Ballpark in Trenton, New Jersey. The match officially begins.
The concept is for teams of six players to participate in a tournament to determine the best batter for a situation, with players pulling the ball, hitting it to the opposite field, hitting the ball into the infield, etc. skills will be utilized.
Slug Ball hopes to attract especially former high school and college players who want to continue playing baseball in a competitive style, just by swinging a bat, like Top Golf, which is popular at practice ranges.
“In this day and age, there are a lot of alternative sports like pickleball, 3-on-3 basketball, Top Golf. That’s not the case with baseball. Former high school and college players really love the most fun thing about baseball, which is hitting. There’s nothing else to do. We felt like there was a demographic that was being ignored. There were 300 people in this 24-35 age group who played high school baseball. It is thought that there are more than 10,000 people.
“A lot of people play softball because they don’t have anything else to do, but that’s not the case.”
Perhaps the introduction of the slug ball will bring back the popularity of small ball. Ichiro Suzuki represents the value of being able to control the bat in Tuesday’s Hall of Fame election.
Lofton, 57, has only hope.
“If Dave Kingman were playing today, he would be all over the world,” Lofton said. “Adam Dunn would have been a $50 million-a-year player. It’s a completely different game now. Situational hitting in the game is terrible. People are more excited about home runs and strikeouts.
“So when I was introduced to this product and its concept, I was very interested. I hope this gets people excited about situational hitting and that it becomes more of a topic in today’s game. Just a home run. But it’s not everything. It’s about knowing how to hit.
“I hope this slug ball gets into people’s heads and lets them know what’s important. That’s an exciting part of the game, and it’s gone. Just like with Ichiro, this I hope people wake up.”
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