ARLINGTON — When it comes to baseball fields, the pitcher’s mound often gets in the way, especially when playing softball.
In recent years, some organizations have purchased movable mounds. But if they are too heavy they are hard to move. And if they are too light they wobble are unstable to pitch from.
Bud Adams of Sports Complex Design Group of Everett may have found the answer to the baseball mound woes.
It is called the flip mound.
He recently chose Bill Quakes Memorial Field as a test site for the new “precision fit mound.”
On Dec. 18, he and some business partners dug a huge pit at the field.
The hole is needed to turn the mound upside down when the field will be used for softball or soccer – anytime an inclined pitching mound isn’t needed for baseball.
“Girls would have to pitch with a big hump behind them,” Adams said.
The mound weighs 150 pounds but can be easily flipped over to a flat surface in seconds by two people to accommodate other sports.
Both plastic and rubber cleats can be used on the mound.
“That’s always been the problem with portable mounds,” Adams said, who recalled baseball players having to change shoes as they pitched or left portable mounds.
The product is currently patent pending but has so far received leads from distributors and companies, and is scheduled in January for a trade show in Denver, Color., Adams said.
Under the trademark name Big Brown Mound, the flip mound eliminates the problem of dirt mounds, which are hard to build and maintain, especially when it rains.
Installation of the product is valued at $20,000.