Unexpectedly Intriguing!
04 April 2025
Inventions in Everything: A Bat for Picking Up Baseballs

Over the years, the Inventions in Everything team has featured many unusual innovations, but few that involve celebrity inventors. Even then, the "big names" we've featured aren't necessarily names many would associate with inventions. Names like Abraham Lincoln, Michael Jackson, and Charlie Sheen. All of whom became famous for their work in other fields.

The co-inventor of the innovation we're featuring today is also much better known for their work in other fields. But unlike the other celebrity inventors we've featured, they have been awarded patents for more than one invention. Those inventions include U.S. Patent 5,515,203 for an educational lens, a specially shaped plastic pouch that can be filled with water to be used like a magnifying glass, U.S. Patents 6,895,694 and 7,254,904 for improved toe shoes to be worn by ballet dancers, and finally, U.S. Patent 7,771,294 for a training device to teach athletes good form for throwing balls.

The inventor's name is William S. Nye, but the following video introduces him how you will almost certainly better know him:

Bill Nye's patented inventions reveal his interest in both education and physical activity, which overlaps today's featured innovation. Here's the backstory for this non-patented invention, which he helped create along with baseball instructor Steve Goucher, who he teamed up with to invent the throwing technique training device awarded U.S. Patent 7,771,294:

“Science Guy” Bill Nye, a well-documented M’s fan, was training for a Mariner Fantasy Camp when he observed one of his trainers’ ad hoc inventions, a bat with a piece of PVC pipe attached to the end for scooping up baseballs to hit during fielding practice. Steve Goucher, Nye’s trainer at the time and a Seattle baseball instructor for 15 years, explained that Nye took one look at it and started seeing ways to make it better.

“He took out his pocketknife on the spot, and started to cut grooves into it,” Goucher says. Nye, a former Boeing engineer who already holds patents for nifty inventions like a water-filled magnifying glass and modified ballet slippers, decided that a baseball grabber might be marketable and partnered with Goucher to develop a product around the idea.

Goucher, who operates baseballjazz.com, had grown tired of stooping all the time to pick up balls to hit to his players. His sore back convinced him to do something about it. So he visited McLendon Hardware in White Center for a piece of PVC pipe, which he attached to the end of his bat. It turned out to be reasonably effective at snatching up baseballs for hitting practice, but it wasn’t until Goucher met Nye that they had the idea to market it to the masses. The two shopped for manufacturers and settled on a rubber version of the grabber, produced by Auburn-based GlobalTech Plastics. They call it the Fango, after the colloquial fungo, a lightweight bat used by coaches for hitting practice.

We tried to find where to buy a "Fango", as Goucher and Nye originally named their innovation, but came up empty. Goucher also marketed the product as a "Quick Pick Fungo Bat", which was sold through Dove Tail Bats but who no longer sells them.

We did however find the invention was also marketed as "The Skipper Stick", which is also no longer sold, but still has an active link to the product. Here are photos of the product:

The Skipper Stick - https://web.archive.org/web/20160114232213/http://baseballjazz.com/skipper-stick
Skipper Stick holding a baseball

Here's the marketing pitch for the product:

Are you a parent or a coach that likes to help your kids by hitting them fly balls with a fungo? Does the constant bending over to pick up balls begin to hurt your back over time? Introducing the new revolution in training tools, The Skipper Stick! This slick fungo was designed with the help of Bill Nye "The Science Guy"! Together with D-BAT they developed this revolutionary new design to alleviate the stress put on the backs of parents and coaches by repetitive bending over. It's a great time saver too! For people that aren't familiar with the benefits of fungos, here is a brief overview. Fungos are specifically designed for coaches to easily hit ground balls and fly balls for infield or outfield practice. Coaches know that hitting ground balls and fly balls to their team can be tiring. The unique shape of fungo bats makes them light weight and extremely easy to swing without wearing your arms out. The fungo bat will make it feel like you are swinging a bat that is a fraction of the weight of a normal bat and will give you extra distance even when you swing easy. The end weight design helps build momentum so that it requires less effort to swing it hard enough to hit the ball to any part of the field. Fungos have become a favorite among coaches because of their lightweight, durability and ease of use.

Whether called the Skipper Stick, a Fango, or a Quick Pick Fungo Bat, Goucher and Nye's innovation of a baseball bat that can pick up baseballs off the ground is an example of an invention for a very niche market, one that likely was too thin to sustain sales for more than a short period of time, even though some of the customers were major league baseball teams.

Steve Goucher and Bill Nye stand in good company in that outcome. Neither Abraham Lincoln's patented invention nor Charlie Sheen's lip balm dispenser never made it to the marketplace, so they're already ahead of the pack. We think only Michael Jackson's special shoes for performing the gravity-defying "lean" maneuver may be the only celebrity invention that's still in use, although that seems to be limited to tribute performances of Smooth Criminal.

Inventions in Everything: The Archives

Ready to sample more of the most creative designs and patents the Inventions in Everything team has explored? Our archives celebrate inventions ranging from the whimsical to the inspired in reverse chronological order!

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- posted by Ironman at 6:10 AM | Permalink | Home |

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