Former MLB All-Star Kenny Lofton Praises Sluggball’s Reimagined Approach to the Sport: ‘Baseball’s Top Golf’

A lost art in the game of baseball is being revived in an innovative way this year, and an ancient one at that Major League Baseball stella is happy to advise.

Sluggball is a reimagined way to play the sport, and it’s seen by six-time MLB All-Star Kenny Lofton, who serves as a consultant for the company, as something similar to a recreational version of another sport.

“This is almost like Top Golf of baseball,” Lofton told FOX Business Digital over the 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 prepares a swing during a “Sluggball” tournament. (Slugball/Fox News)

Sluggball was co-founded by a Philadelphia-based partnership group that includes 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 collaborating with the brand, while Evan Kaplan, CEO of MLB Players, Inc., serves as an advisor alongside Lofton.

The premise of the reimagined version of baseball is to reboot the situational hit 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 in Lofton’s time playing the game. It hurts the former high-average outfielder to see power as the main component behind the hit, so he hopes that the Sluggball format can bring the situation, hitting contact back to the forefront.

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“I think my favorite part of all this is that you can have smaller people be a part of the game, and it was more about, for me, situational hits,” 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 it was not a power battle. This game is so set up with power, power, power. com ‘and that’s not the only part of what makes this game so special Just to have the opportunity for guys who played college ball, high school ball in this Sluggball to have the opportunity to get back into the game again because you love it.

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

The rules for Sluggball are simple. First, teams of six to eight players are registered at their respective event this year with their own batting practice-style pitcher brought to the stadium. The team’s lineup for its games — two four-round games are guaranteed at entry — will have four hitters, and hitters are limited to eight swings or 35 seconds.

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

Each game consists of four rounds of hitting situations, when points are scored by hitting the ball in accordance with the situation of each round. That would be the pull side, in the middle, the opposite field and around the horn, according to the side of the plate the boat is on.

A batted ball only counts if it is hit to the outfield on the side where the round is located and remains in fair territory. The team with the most total points in the round wins that round, and there is no need to run or field – just hit.

Sluggball hosted an invite-only pilot event at the Trenton Thunder Ballpark in September 2024, when Phillies legend Larry Bowa was the MLB’s on-site ambassador, who spent time signing autographs and interacting with attendees. The event saw a great reception from the players and those who attended with them, leading to optimism towards 2025.

“A guy who’s 65 years old who knows how to work the bat, he can score points in this situation,” Lofton said, referring to the age of one of the players in the pilot event. “You can hit the ball up the middle, you can hit the ball to left field, right field when it’s your time to do it. That’s what excites me.

“We know it’s BP, but again, I always say you’ve got to learn to work the bat. … Maybe Sluggball can have an opportunity to say, ‘Hey, this is also a part of the game that’s important that’s been removed because of analytics and the people of the Ivy League.”

Sluggball currently has six events available for registration, with “Opening Day” at the 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 shirt and hat from Branded Bills. Lunch and cash bar, post-event player performance analysis, memorabilia signed by invited MLB alumni and more are in store for each team’s experience.

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

Kenny Lofton of Team Cleveland swings at a pitch in the 2019 Legends and Celebrity Softball Game at Progressive Field. (Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports/IMAGN)

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While Sluggball seeks to bring back the 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 people who are like minded and want to enjoy the game as 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 don’t worry about putting it out of the ballpark.”

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