Bill Vilona
Pensacola News Journal

The players’ eyes widened with fascination.

FungoMan had arrived.

“Man, that is the coolest thing I have ever seen,” University of West Florida infielder Lee Huggins said after fielding another hard grounder from the machine’s programmed propulsion.

Meet baseball’s new invention.

It’s sized like a motorized cart, has four wheels, is powered by electricity, has a computerized brain and can be a one-man gang at the plate. On the mound, it’s just as versatile.

Pop flies, deep flies, line drives, soft ground balls, 100 mph fastballs, even knuckleballs can be produced by one special machine. It can send a grounder to third base, shortstop, second base and first base in less than a minute.

“It will revolutionize the way we’re able to coach and teach our players,” said Pensacola Pelicans manager Mac Seibert, whose team purchased the machine and will share it with the UWF baseball program.

After a delayed debut at UWF because of mechanical failure, a new motor was brought in Wednesday. After a quick installation, FungoMan was ready to go.

This time, it worked. It brought heat and proved it could launch a ball deep.

The machine, first unveiled in January 2003, is the brainchild of Romy Cucjen, a former high school baseball coach at Evangel Christian Academy in Shreveport, La. He started a business partnership in Shreveport with his church pastor, Denny Duron, and a couple of engineers.

There are 25 FungoMan machines in operation, which cost $18,000 each. The Texas Rangers were the first clients. They bought two.

The New York Mets, New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies also purchased a FungoMan.The Pelicans are the first professional minor-league team to have one. The University of Southern California has purchased two. Other major colleges such as Texas, Baylor, Arizona State and Pepperdine also have bought the machine.

“What this machine allows is more players to get work in a shorter period of time, and produce the exact kind of ball you want a fielder to work on,” Seibert said. “This machine will actually take the place of one or two coaches who had to hit fungoes. Now, you’re best coaches can be out in the field teaching, instead of hitting a ball, which will make for better players.”

Cucjen had the idea for FungoMan five years ago, during a tough day at baseball practice.

Cucjen was hitting fungoes, which is the baseball term for a coach tossing up a ball in practice and trying to hit to all parts of the field with a thin (fungo) bat, so the fielders get adequate repetitions. Every team, from youth league through Major Leagues, needs one coach, or several, to be good fungo hitters for practice.

“I started thinking about what I had to do as a high school coach,” Cucjen said. “And Denny said, ‘Where is that machine that will allow it to happen?’ So we started down that road (to creating it).”

The first FungoMan machine held 50 baseballs. It was, as Cucjen said, “a contraption.”

The latest version is more streamlined. The machine can hold 300 baseballs and is programmed with a PDA-like device. The motorized launch wheels can move and rotate for all positions.

Baseballs can be launched as far as 450 feet, or beyond most fences.

The machine can rocket balls, each dispersed three seconds apart, to the same exact spot on a warning track at UWF. Or it can send ground balls across all points of an infield in the same sequence.

“There’s no way any coach could do that,” said UWF outfielder Peter Antoske, winded after flagging down several deep fly balls near the base of the fence. “It’s pretty cool.”

Later at practice, FungoMan was wheeled to the mound to be used as a pitcher. It threw three different fastballs and breaking pitches at speeds ranging from 82 mph to 95 mph. If needed, the knuckleball mode could be used, too.

The Argos were mesmerized.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said freshman outfielder Jeff May. “Amazing.”

On Wednesday, the company’s lead engineer, Brad Tilton, finished design on a FungoMan softball machine. Already, the USA national women’s team wants one. Cucjen was flying to Arizona to meet with Team USA coach Mike Candrea.

The softball machine will do the same things as the baseball version, only at different speeds, heights and distances.

Seibert has known Cucjen through working in amateur baseball camps together. Two years ago, Seibert learned of the initial concept of FungoMan.

“What do you think?” Cucjen asked.

“I think you’re going to put some coaches out of jobs,” Seibert joked.

The reality, however, as Seibert said, is many professional baseball teams keep one or two men on the staff, only because of their ability to hit practice balls. With FungoMan, the machine can do it better.

The only missing element is the sound off the bat.

“Sometimes, the best teacher on a coaching staff can’t throw or hit,” Seibert said. “So they might lose a job, because you have to keep fungo guys. Now, that may not happen.

“Plus, this machine can be programmed for pitch sequences like a first-pitch fastball, second-pitch curve, and so forth. There’s no pitching machine that can simulate what a real pitcher can do. But this can.”

Cucjen is hoping to market FungoMan to all levels of baseball teams. He has produced a leasing plan for high schools and youth-league teams for affordability.

He knows small high schools, which have only one or two coaches, need the FungoMan machine even more than larger coaching staffs in college or pro baseball. With it, practices can be fast-tempo and lively, because the machine launches baseballs so rapidly at all points on the field.

“It can simulate so many game-like situations,” UWF coach Mike Jeffcoat said. “As coaches, we can now be in the field working as instructors. No matter who good we think we are at hitting fungoes, I’m definitely not as good as FungoMan.”

What’s next?

“We need ManagerMan,” Seibert said, laughing. “A machine to make decisions and keep people off our backs.”

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