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(Left to right) Kurt Gross, Cody Decker and Will Gross.
(Left to right) Kurt Gross, Cody Decker and Will Gross.
El Pasoan Kurt Gross recently had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Gross, co-owner of Powerbull Bat Company in El Paso, threw batting practice at Dodger Stadium, home of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Cody Decker, an El Paso Chihuahuas fan favorite when he played here in the 2014 and 2015 seasons, invited Gross to go to Los Angeles to help test equipment Major League Baseball plans on using for its annual Home Run Derby on July 18 at Dodger Stadium.
“You think about all of the games that have been played in that stadium, but when we walked in through center field it was like we heard angels singing in the background,” said Gross, who co-owns Powerbull along with founder Raul Salazar.
The Home Run Derby is a part of the All-Star Game festivities. The All-Star game will be July 19.
Gross and Decker became friends while Decker was playing for the Chihuahuas, the San Diego Padres Triple A club. Gross made Decker’s bats while he was playing in El Paso.
Powerbull Bat Company is licensed with MLB. A majority of Powerbull’s bats are being used by Minor League Baseball players, however, Miami Marlins outfielder Bryan De La Cruz recently signed an exclusive contract with Powerbull.
Back at Chavez Ravine, Gross and his son Will met Decker to throw batting practice and to test the state-of-the-art home run tracking equipment on the Dodger Stadium scoreboard.
“It was a real neat collaboration,” Gross said. “Once some of the technical folks found out who I was, we spent about 45 minutes talking about what they want to do.”
Gross said that there were about 15 representatives from Major League Baseball and a team from ESPN at Dodger Stadium during their mock home run derby trial.
In addition, there was a much larger contingent in New York City at the MLB home office that was watching and assessing the video from Dodger Stadium.
MLB was conducting the special TrackMan analysis they plan to replicate during the All-Star Game. TrackMan is a 3D Doppler radar system that precisely measures the location, trajectory and spin rate of baseballs that are pitched and hit.
Gross was also able to see the special technology that will be used during the Home Run Derby.
One interesting piece of technology is a special camera that will pop up in front of home plate and transmit close-up images of batters hitting during the derby.
Here are some additional observations from Gross during his trial run:
The “old cage” baseballs he threw during the mock derby were snow white and without a scratch.
Underneath those baseballs were about six dozen of the special T-Mobile home run “money” baseballs. MLB would not confirm the specs of those baseballs, but Gross noted that they were a little bit lighter and a little bit smaller than the regular balls. The money balls also traveled considerably farther in the test run, especially when Decker got a hold of them.
Since 1997, Steve Kaplowitz has hosted “Sportstalk” from 4 to 7 p.m. weekdays on 600 ESPN El Paso. You can email him at
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