My Little Adventure Building a Baseball Batting Stand
So, the kiddo started getting real keen on baseball. Which is great, you know? But then came the endless, “Dad, can you pitch to me?” My arm, well, it ain’t what it used to be, and frankly, I don’t have hours to just stand there throwing balls. We looked at those batting tees in the store, and man, some of ’em are flimsy as a wet noodle, and the good ones? They want your firstborn child as payment. I just shook my head. No way.
I figured, how tough can it be? A stick that holds a ball. I’ve got tools. I’ve got junk in the garage. Let’s do this. My first brilliant idea was to use some old PVC piping I had lying around. Seemed simple enough. Cut a few pieces, glued ’em into a kind of ‘T’ shape for the base and an upright. Looked okay, for about two seconds.
The moment my boy took a decent swing, the whole contraption just skittered across the yard and fell over. The ball went one way, the stand another. He looked at me, I looked at the pile of plastic. “Well, that didn’t work,” I muttered. Back to the drawing board, feeling a bit foolish.
Round Two: Getting Serious (Sort Of)
Okay, so lightness was the enemy. I needed a heavy base. I was rummaging around, getting more frustrated, and then I saw it – an old car tire I’d been meaning to take to the dump for ages. Bingo! That thing wasn’t going anywhere.
Here’s what I did next:
- I found a solid piece of wood, like a fence post remnant. That was going to be the main upright.
- I got a circular piece of thick plywood, cut it so it would fit snugly just inside the top rim of the tire.
- Screwed the wooden post dead center onto that plywood circle. Then I jammed that whole assembly into the tire. Rock solid, I tell ya. That base wasn’t budging.
Now for the tricky part: the actual thingy that holds the ball. My first thought for the top of the post was just to cut a little divot or something. Yeah, dumb idea. The ball just rolled off if you breathed on it wrong. This was getting annoying. I almost gave up and thought about just buying one, feeling like a failure. But then, my stubborn streak kicked in.
The Eureka Moment with Some Rubber
I was digging through my “might be useful someday” box – you all have one, admit it. And I found a piece of thick, flexible rubber tubing. Not sure where it came from, maybe an old appliance. It was about an inch or so in diameter.
Lightbulb moment! I cut a short piece, maybe four or five inches long. Then, I very carefully (and with a bit of grunting) managed to stretch and fix that rubber tube onto the top of the wooden post. I made sure it stuck up straight. The rubber was stiff enough to hold its shape but flexible enough that the bat could hit the ball cleanly without smashing the stand to bits. And the top of the tube naturally formed a kind of cup for the ball to sit in. Perfect!
We took it out for a test run. My kid lines up, takes a swing… CRACK! The ball soared. The stand? Didn’t even wobble. Success! I made it a good height for him, but honestly, if I needed to change it, I’d probably just make another wooden post of a different length and swap it out. Keeping it simple, you know?
So yeah, that’s how I made a pretty decent baseball stand for batting. Cost me practically nothing but a bit of garage junk and some head-scratching. It’s way sturdier than half the stuff in the stores. Plus, the kid thinks I’m some kind of genius inventor now. Sometimes, just doing it yourself is the way to go. Saves you cash and you actually get something that works. These companies charging a fortune for simple bits of plastic and metal for kids’ sports… don’t even get me started on that racket.
