Former Brewers slugger Deer invents unique hitting tool
For several years, Rob Deer has devoted his life to teaching the fundamentals necessary to be a consistent hitter, something the former slugger never mastered while playing 11 seasons in the major leagues, including five with the Milwaukee Brewers.
“I give these kids Tshirts that say, ‘Do as I say, not as I did,'” said Deer, who has been giving approximately 25 private lessons a week for the past five years in Scottsdale, Arizona, while also doing occasional baseball camps with former Brewers teammate Chris Bosio.
“I wish I had this (kind of instruction) when I was a teenager. If only I knew then what I know now, I would have been so much better.”
Deer carved a permanent niche in Milwaukee baseball lore with his electrifying, game-tying, three-run home run in the ninth inning on Easter Sunday 1987 against the Texas Rangers at County Stadium, setting the stage for the beloved “Team Streak” to win its 12th consecutive game to open that roller coaster season. He was one of the game's best boppers during his time with the Brewers, socking 137 home runs in 667 games.
In those days, Deer was the ultimate free swinger, setting what was then an American League record with 186 strikeouts in '87. Including his time with De
troit and Boston after leaving the Brewers, the red-headed brute led the league in strikeouts four times while totaling 230 homers and 600 runs batted in.
Deer is the first to tell you that he did many things wrong at the plate in those days, pulling his head off pitches, hooking balls foul down the left-field line, releasing his top hand off the bat too soon at times and waving at breaking balls off the plate he had no chance of hitting. Deer was so strong, however, that when he did barrel up the ball, he could send it to faraway places.
As with many hitters who experience extreme ups and downs, Deer never lost his desire to improve.
The more he learned, the more he wanted to pass it on to others, leading to stints as a minor-league coach in San Diego's farm system as well as a bigleague coach with the Chicago Cubs under another former Brewers teammate, Dale Sveum.
In recent years, Deer has mostly worked on an individualized basis, conducting private lessons. The wheels in his mind have constantly turned, looking for new tools to help pupils grasp the basics. More than a dozen years ago, he invented Viz-U-Bat, a device in which a baseball was attached to a bat to help hitters visualize the point of contact as they practiced their swings. But it never really caught on, and Deer moved on to other concepts.
Still youthful and energetic at 60, Deer has developed a new product that he is ready to market and produce on a mass level. It's called BATGEER and, for lack of a better analogy, is sort of a rubber gasket that goes over the bat handle and between hitters' hands, forming a connection that helps them stay fundamentally sound as they swing at pitches.
A longtime motorcycle enthusiast, Deer first got the idea for BATGEER while using handle grip donuts on long rides with close friend and former Brewers teammate Robin Yount, who has ridden motor-powered bikes of all kinds since he was old enough to climb on the seat.
“They're supposed to keep your hands connected and it seems like you have more control,” Deer said of the handlebar donuts. “It prevents blisters, also. I used them and they felt so good, I began thinking it would be good to have on a bat, also. I called Robin, told him what I was thinking, and we met for lunch to talk about it.
“I said to Robin, ‘If you don't agree with this, I'm not going to do it.' He said back to me, ‘If I don't agree with it, you're right. You're not going to do it.' So, that's how it all started. You know how much I respect his opinion. He's played a big part in all of this.”
At first, Deer tried cutting rubber donuts by hand, experimenting with different shapes and sizes. He eventually found a design he liked, adding “pimples” to it with Yount's advice to provide a better seal between the hitter's hands. Five tabs were attached to the circular edges, giving it the look of a mechanical gear and leading to its eventual name.
“I knew exactly what I wanted it to do,” Deer said. “I wanted to have something that keeps your hands together on the bat, so there's less margin for error coming through the hitting zone. A lot of times, if you swing at a ball that's away from you, we call it ‘chicken wing.' Your left arm comes flying out, the bat drops and you pop up to right field. Or on a ball that's middle/in, you make contact, your hands become disconnected and it causes a rollover (weak ground ball).
“Using BATGEER, you're creating something that happens without having to think about it. In game situations, things change and sometimes that makes your swing change. It can get longer. We want the bat to stay in the (hitting) zone as long as possible. I try to teach all the things I couldn't do. I want them to be complete hitters; to use the whole field.
“We talk about having a good twostrike approach. I never had that. Keeping your hands connected to stay through the ball makes a big difference. It stops you from releasing your top hand too soon. Both hands stay on the bat longer. It's something of a shock absorber too, so you don't get blisters or that ringing feeling in your hands.”
With some marketing help, Deer formed Geer Enterprises to sell his product. He reached out to a family-owned business in Chicago, Custom Rubber Molders, to make the device. They then are shipped to Warren Industries in Racine, which distributes them. Each BATGEER sells for $19.95.
“I'm glad that it's coming out of Wisconsin,” Deer said. “I love coming back to Milwaukee. It still means a lot to me. It's where I got my first chance to play in the big leagues and the fans were great to me. I gave myself a custom Harley for Christmas and bought it in Milwaukee and had it delivered from there, where they come from. I didn't want to buy one in Scottsdale.”
The plan is to make a big marketing push with BATGEER and get it to consumers across the country. Deer's dream is to have it licensed one day by MLB for in-game use but in the interim his focus is on young hitters just learning the fundamentals of the difficult art of putting a round bat squarely on a round ball.
“(Colorado Rockies hitting coach Dave Magadan) believes in it and has had hitters use it (in workouts),” Deer said. “A lot of professional players who've tried it say they like it. We'll just have to wait and see (if MLB licenses it). We have college and high school players using it in games, and they all love it. I know it works for them.
“A lot of good hitters have seen this and flipped over it. But, so far, it's mostly been word of mouth. I think major-leaguers will really like it, but our main focus is to get it to younger players who are just learning. I know it will help them tremendously. I really believe in this product.
“Two of the best hitters I've ever seen, Robin and Paul Molitor, their bats stayed in the hitting zone so long. That's the key to hitting. This helps you do that without thinking about it. I've learned so much about hitting over the years. I don't want hitters thinking about too much up there. You can give them too much information.”
Yount, who compiled 3,142 hits during his 20-year Hall of Fame career with the Brewers, always has said there's nothing easy about hitting a baseball, even for the most successful players. Accordingly, anything that helps is worth trying, which is why he has backed and endorsed BATGEER.
"I know Rob is excited about it, and he should be," Yount said. "He put a lot of time and effort into developing this. He has dedicated his life to teaching people how to hit a baseball better. He's got a lot of experience in that area, and knows what does and doesn't work.
"It's a very simple product but sometimes simplicity is the best thing, especially with something as challenging as hitting a baseball. If you've got too much going on upstairs, you have no chance of hitting a baseball. So, training tools need to be simple. Otherwise, they create more clutter in your brain that gets in the way."
"BATGEER makes complete sense when you look at it. I've always believed you need to use your dominant hand to create as much power as you can in hitting a baseball. For me, as a right-handed hitter, that was my top hand. I needed to keep my hands together to be successful and this tool helps you do that. You feel it immediately when your hands separate. This is a reminder not to let that happen."
Deer believes he has found his true calling as a hitting instructor after trying other ventures since retiring as a player, including drag racing and sprint car racing. Along the way, he had to battle many personal demons, including addiction to alcohol and pain killers, which he began taking after several major spinal surgeries resulting from injuries during his baseball career.
The twice-divorced Deer has experienced many dark days, including a particularly depressing Christmas holiday in 2010 during which he was alone and drinking too much, gulping down pain killers and seriously pondering if life was worth living. He continued to spiral out of control, leading to two clinical rehab stints to address substance abuse.
With professional help and the support of family and good friends such as Yount, Deer finally was able to put his addictive ways behind him. Staying busy as a hitting instructor provided focus and structure, and the new business venture with BATGEER has Deer truly energized and more optimistic than ever that he is on to something big.
“This is the best place I've been in personally in years,” said Deer, who recently became a grandfather for the second time. “I'm up to five years with no alcohol. I've had some tough times, worked through a lot of issues, but I picked myself up, dusted myself off and said, ‘Let's move on.'
“With all the stuff that's happened to me, I just wanted to have something good happen. I think this could revolutionize hitting because it's simple and it works. I've started this company and we have a good product. It's been a year and a half in the making. There are so many people backing this, and most of them I've known for 30-plus years or they're a family member.
“I haven't been this happy in a long time. Life is so good right now. I have a lot of things to be thankful for but BATGEER has me more excited than ever."