How to build a Johnny Bench Batter up

Background
When I was a kid, my brothers and I had a Johnny Bench "Batter's up" which is a baseball return machine to help teach kids how to hit a baseball. The batter hits the ball to get the ball moving. As the ball spins around an upright rod in the ground, it winds up the rubber band and when the rubber band is at its maximum stretch point, the ball pauses briefly and then starts spinning the other direction. At this point, the batter takes a swing at the ball and hopefully hits the ball and starts the wind up process again. The long flexible stick allows some vertical motion of the ball as well so the ball is not at exactly the same height each time it comes through. One of the problems with this toy is that the rubber bands that provide the spring action for the return did not last very long.

Repair
The neighborhood where I grew up had these Batter's up poles sticking up in about half of the backyards. When my nephew was at the little league age, I decided to fix the old batter's up for him. Locating a rubber band large enough and strong enough for the return was quite a challenge. I mentioned my project idea to a friend and he had the great idea of using a bicycle inner tube as the rubber band. This suggestion worked beautifully. I did not need to build the whole unit from scratch but suggestions to do so are provided as well.

    Instructions
  1. Prepare the vertical rod
    1. Select a large wooden or steel rod about an inch in diameter and at least 4 feet long to be used as the vertical rod. Drive it down in the dirt at least a foot to allow the rod to stand 3 foot off of the ground. To add greater stability to the unit, you can pour cement in the bottom of a shallow trash can and place a 3 foot rod in and allow the cement to dry. Keep the rod as perfectly vertical as possible. My unit below was salvaged from the original Batter's up and was created by pouring cement in a trash can.

    2. Cut a groove about 1/4" wide across the top of the rod. The depth of the cut should be at least 1/2". I used my Dremel tool with cutting discs to make the cut. My picture doesn't show this very well so I included a sketch.

  2. Prepare the ball and attach it to the horizontal rod
    1. Select a flexible ~1/4" rod that is about 3 feet long to hold the ball. The original unit came with a plastic or fiberglass rod but a wooden rod would work well too as long as it is flexible.

    2. Select a suitable ball. The original unit came with a hard plastic ball that had a hole through it so that the horizontal rod could go through. A rubber coated baseball would work well. Any hard heavy solid ball should work well.
    3. Attach the ball.
      I didn't actually do this step myself. I had a rod with a ball attached that was salvaged from the original unit. Note the yellow rubber coating on the end of the rod below. This rubber coating completely covered the ball on this particular unit that I savlaged.
        Here are 2 methods to attach the ball
      • Method 1 Drill a hole 3/4 of the way through the ball. The diameter of the drill bit should be the same as that of the rod. Using a tap and die set and a hard solid ball, place threads on both the rod with an appropriate die and on the inside of the ball with an appropriate tap. Screw the ball onto the rod.

        method 1

      • Method 2 Drill a hole through the ball. The diameter of the drill bit should be the same as that of the rod. Force the ball onto the end of the rod leaving about an inch of the rod sticking past the ball. Put a bunch of wraps of tape on the rod on both sides of the ball to secure it in place. Small ~1/4" hose clamps could be used here as well. Place one on each side of the ball and secure.

        method 2

      • Method 3 Drill a hole through the ball. The diameter of the drill bit should be the same as that of the rod. Use a tap and die kit, tap the end of the rod. Insert a nut that matches the rod and thread size to secure the ball on the end of the rod.

        method 3

  3. Prepare the pvc pipe
    1. Cut an 8 inch piece of ~3/4 inch pvc pipe.
    2. Drill a small 1/4" hole through the diameter of the pipe every inch along the length of the pipe. Unfortuanately, I didn't take a picture of the pipe after drilling the holes. The purpose of drillin multiple holes is to make the height adjustable for different batters. The distance of the hole to the end of the pipe can help select the height of the ball. If you have a shorter batter, you can put the hole much lower.
    3. Insert a 1/4 screw (1.25" long) through a hole closest to one of the ends and secure it on the other side with a nut.

  4. Attach the horizontal rod with ball to the pvc pipe.
    1. Purchase a ~1/4" hose clamp large enough to easily fit around the horizontal rod.
    2. Purchase a larger ~3/4" hose clamp large enough to fit around the pvc pipe.
    3. Place the small hose clamp through the hole formed by the large hose clamp and place this combination around the horizontal rod on the end opposite the end on which you have attached the ball. Leave about an inch of the rod extending past the clamp. Secure the small clamp tightly. I used 3 1/4" hose clamps on this unit to help keep the rod horizonal with respect to the PVC tube.
    4. Secure the large clamp around the 3/4" pvc pipe.

  5. Attach the inner tube to serve as the rubber band or spring action
    1. Select the hole below the one which you inserted the 1.25" long screw earlier.
    2. Insert a 1/4" diam. 1/2" long screw into the tube and through the selected hole and out such that the head of the screw is inside the pvc pipe. Insert a large washer over the threaded portion of the screw that sticks out from the pipe. Force a hole in the inner tube by pushing it over the screw. Place another large washer over the inner tube and secure with a nut.

    3. Stretch the other end of the innertube material over the ball. It may be necessary to adjust the length of the horizontal rod. If necessary loosen the small hose clamp and allow the length of the inner tube set the position of the clamp.
    4. Using white tape, tape the inner tube material tightly around the ball.

    5. To add to the look of the ball, use a red marker to simulate the stitches that are on a base ball.
  6. Final assembly
    1. Place the horizonal rod/ball/pipe combination on top of the vertical rod. The end of the pipe with the screw is the top.
    2. The 1/4" screw should fit into the groove cut into the vertical rod.

I hope you find this project useful and fun. Please e-mail me suggestions and comments.