A large sign over the door to the training area at Play Ball USA urges aspiring ballplayers to “Step up to the plate.”
The sign is a reminder that young players must work and challenge themselves to improve, said owners Ron Cacini and Mark Malartsik.
Play Ball Direct Inc. opened the facility–a membership baseball and softball training and development center–at 208 S. Graceland Ave. in Des Plaines on Nov. 11.
“We want to help kids understand what kind of commitment you need to put in if you want to make it to the professional level, if you want this to be your dream,” Malartsik said.
But Malartsik and his partner haven’t forgotten that the game should also be fun. They don’t want kids to lose “that love to get dirty and to hustle and to just play the game the way it’s supposed to be played,” Cacini said.
Play Ball USA members train in the 4,000-square-foot facility, which has the old Astroturf from Cinergy Field in Cincinnati.
Memberships are available for children 6 years old to minor leaguers and other professional prospects. Packages of 6 to 24 lessons can be customized to focus on any aspect of the game, and video analysis is used as a tool. The facility has four tunnels that can be used to practice hitting, fielding and pitching.
A one-year membership costs $350 and includes an evaluation and a video analysis. Lesson packages range from $210 for six sessions to $720 for 24. Non-members can rent a tunnel when available for $45 for 30 minutes or $80 an hour.
The coaching staff includes three full-time employees, including Cacini and Malartsik, and 12 part-time instructors.
The center also will conduct seminars for coaches and parents.
The idea for the center was born two summers ago when Cacini, a former minor-league player with the Houston Astros organization and the Schaumburg Flyers, started offering baseball lessons in the back yard of his Park Ridge home. His friend Malartsik, who played at the high school and college levels and coached baseball with Cacini at Notre Dame High School in Niles, joined him in the enterprise last summer. By that time, Cacini’s client base had grown to more than 200 youngsters.
“I love working with kids and I love the game of baseball,” said Cacini, who teaches physical education at Emerson Middle School in Park Ridge. “This facility is going to cultivate an atmosphere that’s going to help kids develop their skills, have a fun time learning the game of baseball and get them to dream big.”
Marco Fajardo, president of Grand Slam USA in Lisle, estimates there are hundreds of similar baseball training facilities across the U.S. Grand Slam USA was a national franchise that had more than 60 locations at its peak, but the business dissolved in the late 1990s and fewer than 50 locations survive as independent operations under the Grand Slam USA name.
When it operated nationally, individual locations reported annual revenue of $100,000 to $1.5 million, including income from parties, private rentals and arcade games, Fajardo said.
Fajardo and Tim Rappe, president of the Bulls/Sox Training Academy in Lisle, believe that the centers’ appeal is the more intense and professional training they offer compared with facilities available in park districts, for example.
“Most of the people who coach tend to be fathers and people who have a lot of time,” Fajardo said. “Not to take that away from them. That’s a magical thing, to be able to donate your time and effort like that, but they’re not necessarily the most skilled at teaching baseball and softball.”
Rappe said profit margins are small. What drew the Chicago Bulls and White Sox into the business wasn’t so much the promise of profits now but the desire to develop a new generation of fans.
“If our kids aren’t playing the game, if they don’t have some up-close and personal brush with the game of baseball at an early age, they are far less likely to grow up being fans of the game,” Rappe said.
