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The Rawlings Sporting Goods Co.
unveiled a Radar Ball, at the 1997
National Sporting Goods Association
annual convention in Chicago. The
baseball, invented, and patented by
David Zakutin, features a small digital
display between the seams showing how
fast it was thrown. The Speed-sensing
baseball,
patent No. 5761096, applied for
in 1996, calculates the
average speed at which the baseball is
thrown over a fixed distance.
The ball has the size and feel of a regulation baseball. To use it the
catcher must squat 60 feet, 6 inches
away from the pitcher, the standard
distance from the pitchers rubber to
home plate. A sensor is built into the
baseball that measures time from the
moment the ball is released until it is
caught. A microprocessor inside the
ball then divides the distance by the
time and displays a reading in mph. The
reading comes within 1 mph the accuracy
of a radar gun.
The Rawlings Radar baseball retailed from $34.-$39
in 1998. Two models were
introduced, the Radar 60 Baseball that
came in a blue box, and the Radar 46
baseball that came is a green box, for
youth leagues that utilize the 46 foot
pitcher's mound. An early version that
retailed for about $29.99, came in a red bag reads "Patent
Pending," came with a string measuring
device, for accurate distance from home
plate to pitching rubber.
A photo shoot at Chicago's Comiskey Park kicked off a national campaign to
launch the Rawlings Radar Ball. The
campaign featured Seattle Mariner's
pitcher Randy Johnson, the hardest
thrower in Major League baseball in
1998. Randy Johnson was featured in a
Rawlings Radar Ball commercial Below.
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