When I was little, I really wanted one of those fancy
store-bought bounceback things like some of my friends had. Not only could you practice pitching, but
depending upon the tilt, you could practice fielding grounders and pop-ups too.
I asked dad if he could buy one for me, and he said he’d see
what he could do. A few days later he
surprised me with one of my own bouncebacks.
He took a gate off of an old fence, kind of like this one:
Then, he painstakingly wove waxed string across the gate to
form a tight mesh. He tied knots at each
intersection and ended up with a grid with about 2 inch centers. He even spraypainted a red square on it to
represent the strike zone. It didn’t
have an adjustable leg to vary the tilt, but he showed me how I could adjust it
by leaning it against the tree at different angles.
I loved the heck out of that thing and played with it for
years. It was just as good as anything I
could have gotten uptown, except that, in most cases, the ball only rebounded
about six feet. Next time I’m over
there, I’m gonna see if he still has it in his barn. I think he does.
