Kenny Lofton, who has watched plenty of his peers get inducted into the Hall of Fame since his 2007 retirement, believes he simply came along at the wrong time or he’d be appreciated, sitting right alongside them in Cooperstown.
Lofton, a six-time All-Star, four-time Gold Glove center fielder who hit .299 with 2,428 hits and 622 stolen bases in his 18-year career, had just one flaw in his game.
He didn’t hit home runs, producing just 130 homers while playing all but four years of his career during the steroid era.
“I was one of those guys that got overlooked because I played in the era of home runs and steroid guys,’’ Lofton told USA TODAY Sports. “That was a big part of the game, but it was like my part of the game meant nothing. I did my job hitting atop of the order. I was getting on base, just trying to help my team.
“Now, everything is about launch and home runs. Now, its about launch angles and home runs. In my era, I was doing my job.
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“It’s sad to see how the game has turned out.’’
This is one of the reasons why Lofton joined forces with former Philadelphia Phillies GM Ruben Amaro and his brother, David Amaro, who co-founded Sluggball. It’s a baseball version of Topgolf, utilizing a four-by-four situational hitting format that will be officially launched May 10 in Trenton, New Jersey, at the Trenton Thunder Ballpark in the first of at least six events.
The concept will be for teams of six players to join tournaments to determine the best situational hitters, having players utilize their skills from pulling the ball to hitting to the opposite field to spraying the ball around the infield.
Sluggball is hoping to attract former players, particularly from high school and college, who want to keep playing baseball in a competitive style, but only by swinging the bat, just like popular Topgolf on the driving range.
“In this day and age,’’ Amaro said, “there are so many alternative sports like pickleball, 3-on-3 basketball, Topgolf and things like that. There’s no such thing in baseball. There’s really no other thing for former high school players and college players who truly love the most fun thing in baseball, and that’s hitting. We just felt like there was a demographic that was being ignored. We think there’s three-million plus people in this sort of 24-to-35-year age demographic who played high school baseball.
“So many people don’t have anything else to do, so they’re going to play softball, which is not the same thing.’’
Who knows, perhaps the advent of Sluggball will bring popularity back to small-ball, with Ichiro Suzuki representing the value of being able to control his bat with his Hall of Fame election on Tuesday.
Lofton, 57, can only hope.
“Can you imagine if Dave Kingman were playing now, he’d be all-world,’’ Lofton said. “Adam Dunn would have been a $50 million a year player. It’s just such a different game now. Situational hitting in the game is terrible. People get excited more about home runs and strikeouts.
“So once this was introduced to me, and the concept of it all, it interested me. I’m hoping this will get people excited about situational hitting and talked about more in today’s game. It’s not all about home runs. It’s about knowing how to hit.
“Hopefully, this Sluggball gets into people’s heads and let them know what’s important. It’s part of the game that’s exciting, but has gone away. Now, just like with Ichiro, hopefully this can wake people up.’’
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