Baseball players across the nation may be seeing a lot more of their coaches. Area high school skippers and University of Arkansas coaches were able to view a device designed to make baseball drills more efficient during several exhibitions during the All-Star High School Coaches All-Star Week on Tuesday.
Fayetteville High head coach Vance Arnold and former UA skipper Norm DeBriyn were among those who took the first peek when the FungoMan was displayed last Monday during a practice for the Fayetteville Youth Baseball League 11-12-year-old all-stars at Walker Park.
“This thing is amazing,” Arnold said. “There’s nothing it can’t do. And as a coach, you’re going to be able to spend more time coaching the kids and less time trying to hit infield pop-ups. It’s going to make practices more efficient because the machine is so precise you’re able to cram so much more work into less time and get a lot more out of practice.”
The FungoMan is a robotic device that facilitates fullscale practices at the touch of a wireless remote device that operates effectively from up to 400 feet away from the machine.
The basic architecture of the FungoMan is a plastic tub atop four wheels with an oscillating, Jugs-like pitching machine device mounted to the top. A tube feeds baseballs from the tub to the oscillating wheels, which shoots the ball at any speed and at any angle.
The wireless device uses Windows operating software and can script entire practices. The FungoMan can throw batting practice as well as hit infield and outfield. It can function as a catcher throwing to any location to facilitate baserunning drills. It can jettison fly balls up to 415 feet and with its computerized program can deliver a ball at any spot on the field with the touch of a button. It can mimic choppers, rollers, dribblers, comebackers, bloopers, pop flies, onehoppers and doubles in the gap. It can also distribute the baseball at various time increments with a minimum interval of 3 seconds.
“It frees up a coach to be more involved in the details of coaching,” said FungoMan president Romy Cucjen. “It’s light, portable, very practical and easy to set up. And the benefits are countless. The amount of quality work coaches are able to get done in less time is amazing.”
It’s just as handy on the mound for batting practice. It has the ability to throw curveballs, changeups and knuckle balls. It boasts a 92 mph fastball but can decelerate to 30 mph for beginners.
Eight major-league teams currently use the FungoMan in practices. The FungoMan is also catching on in the NCAA ranks. LSU, Georgia, Texas, Baylor, Michigan, Pepperdine, UNLV, Wichita State and Arizona State are just a few of several big-time Division I schools utilizing the device.
But it’s not just programs with seemingly endless budgets making the switch to FungoMan. Oklahoma preps baseball powerhouse Owasso has also purchased the machine, which currently has an $ 18, 000 price tag.
“We’ve got about 150 machines out there in high schools so it’s not just pro and college teams using them,” said Cucjen, who coached Shreveport (La. ) Evangel Christian to a state title in 1995. “This machine is durable and it’s going to last and allow so many baseball programs across the country to improve their practices and give their skills a great boost as well.”
For more information visit www.fungoman. com.