It turns out Joe Girardi isn’t just the manager of the New York Yankees. He’s an app designer now, too.
Girardi had an idea back in 2013 to make a family-oriented, baseball-themed game that he could play with his kids after seeing how much time they spent playing apps. And on Aug. 5, the skipper will release his sci-fi baseball game, “Portalball.”
“It was just an idea that we could do with families,” Girardi told the Wall Street Journal’s Daniel Barbarisi recently. “Kids connect on phones, and they connect with parents on phones. I know I text my kids a lot, and they respond quickly. It’s just another way to have connection with family.”
With technical help from app developer Appetizer Mobile, Girardi created the concept for “Portalball,” which uses your phone’s camera in a way that you can play with multiple people. It projects your surroundings onto the screen, and you and your friends can pitch, field and hit baseballs that pop up from portals on the screen. It sounds a little strange, but that’s exactly what Girardi and Appetizer Mobile CEO Jordan Edelson were going for.
“There’s a lot of generic baseball games out there,” Edelson told Barbarisi. “We wanted to do something different.”
The app will be free to download for iPhone and Android, and Girardi is scheduled to unveil it Aug. 5 at Modell’s Sporting Goods in Times Square, where he’ll play “Portalball” against attendees. He might not be too successful, though.
“I stink — I’ve gotta practice,” Girardi said. “I’ll practice with (my son).”
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