A mostly lost art in the game of baseball is being brought back in an innovative way this year, and one before that Major League Baseball estrella is happy to advise.

Sluggball is a reimagined way to play the sport, and six-time MLB All-Star Kenny Lofton, who serves as an advisor to the company, sees it as a recreational version of another sport.

“This is almost like the Top Golf of baseball,” Lofton told FOX Business Digital by phone. “It’s a competition and you’ve got guys who play the game and want to have fun with it.”

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A batter sets up a swing during a “Sluggball” tournament. (Slugball/Fox News)

Sluggball was co-founded by a Philadelphia-based partnership group that includes a former MLB player and Philadelphia Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr. and his brother, David Amaro. The Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association, Victus Bats and Blast Motion are also brand partners, while Evan Kaplan, CEO of MLB Players, Inc., serves as an advisor to Lofton.

The premise of the reimagined version of baseball is to revive situational hitting in a fun format that allows players of all ages to compete in 4-on-4 contests at various minor league parks in New Jersey, Ohio and New York this year.

Situational hitting is an aspect of today’s big league game that isn’t as much of a priority as it was when Lofton was playing. It hurts the former high-average outfielder to view power as the primary component behind hitting, so he hopes the Sluggball format can return to the first line of situational contact.

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“I think my favorite part of it all is that you can make smaller people a part of the game, and for me it was more about hitting situationally,” Lofton, who played 17 MLB seasons and accumulated 2,428 hits 2,103 games, he said. “I think that’s what I saw, and I felt how important it was to the game, and it resonated with me because I wasn’t a power hitter. This game is very much about power, power, power. I’m like this it’s not the only part of what makes this game so special, just having the opportunity for guys who played college and high school ball in this Sluggball to get back into the game because they love it.

“You don’t have to be the most powerful hitter, but you can still handle the bat and Sluggball puts guys in that situation to put a little team together and go out and do something and have that competitive edge like a lot of guys want to go back to.” .

The rules of Sluggball are simple. First, teams of six to eight players enter their respective event this year with their own batting practice-style pitcher brought into the ballpark. The team’s lineup for its games (two four-run games are guaranteed at innings) will have four hitters and at-bats are limited to eight swings or 35 seconds.

A batter prepares to swing during a “Sluggball” tournament. (Slugball / IMAGN)

Each game consists of four rounds of situational hitting, when points are scored by hitting the ball according to the situation of each round. This would be the pull side, up the middle, opposite field, and around the horn, depending on which side of the plate the batter is on.

A batted ball only counts if it is hit in the outfield on the side where the round is located and remains in fair territory. The most total team points in the round wins that round, and you don’t need to run or field, just hit.

Sluggball held a pilot invite-only event at Trenton Thunder Ballpark in September 2024, when Phillies legend Larry Bowa was the MLB ambassador, who spent time signing autographs and interacting with participants. The event was well received by both the players and those who attended, generating optimism for 2025.

“A 65-year-old guy who knows how to work the bat, he can score points in that situation,” Lofton said, referring to the age of a player in the pilot event. “You can hit the ball to center, you can hit the ball to left field, right field when it’s your time to hit it. That’s what excited me.

“We know it’s BP, but again, I always say you’ve got to learn to work the bat. … Maybe Sluggball can have a chance to say, ‘Hey, that’s also a part of the game that’s important to s ‘has been pushed away by analytics and the Ivy League people.’

Sluggball currently has six events available to register, with “Opening Day” at Trenton Thunder Ballpark on May 10. Fees are $1,795 per team and include a two-game guarantee with a chance to play in the championship game for a $3,000 cash prize.

Players also receive team apparel on the field, including UnderArmour shorts and a Branded Bills jersey and hat. Lunch and a cash bar, post-event player performance analysis, autographed memorabilia from invited MLB alumni and more are in store for each team’s experience.

So like Top Golf, those still in love with the game can get those competitive juices flowing alongside others who want to do the same.

Cleveland’s Kenny Lofton plays a field in the 2019 Celebrity and Legends Softball Game at Progressive Field. (Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports / IMAGN)

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While Sluggball seeks to reclaim this lost art, it is also expanding the camaraderie that the game of baseball naturally has.

“That’s one thing I miss about the game — the camaraderie of going out every day and having fun with the guys because you’re all the same,” Lofton said. “You have like-minded people who want to enjoy the game for what it is. Again, you don’t have to be the most athletic. You just have to know how to swing the bat and put the ball in different areas. of the field and not worry about get him off the field.”

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