TRUE PITCH MOUNDS
A FATHER'S DREAM BECOMES REALITY FOR GENERATIONS OF BASEBALL PLAYERS
In 1962, John Goeders watched his son's Des Moines Iowa Little League team lose a championship game. His son pitched from a baseball mound for the first time. Every pitch was wild. You see, his son was used to practicing on a flat surface and simply could not hit the strike zone during the championship game. John concluded that his son's team loss was due to a lack of consistency between practice pitching and actual game pitching. Determined to test his theory, he decided to develop a portable pitching mound for practice, which also replicated actual game mound pitching experience. True Pitch® was born. John developed several models of fiberglass pitching mounds and tested them at high schools and colleges throughout his native state of Iowa to great results and demand. He received his first mound patent in 1966. John continued to refine his mounds and in 1972 earned a coveted endorsement from Little League Baseball®.
Today, Altoona Iowa-based True Pitch mounds are used in tournament play and on ballfields around the world. The company is headed by Greg Goeders, who assumed leadership from his dad, Dennis, the son whose team lost the Little League championship game in 1962. Considered by many the portable mound industry pioneer, True Pitch holds 40 patents on various products. The company offers a product line of 10 portable game and practice mounds, as well as numerous field products including Flex-A-Clay, a specifically formulated, processed, dry soil composition that creates a safe playing field with great traction. True Pitch mounds have been endorsed by Bob Feller, the Cleveland Indians pitching legend, as well as Pee Wee Reese, the 10-time All-Star Baseball player and Hall of Famer. True Pitch products were also featured in the major motion picture film, Field of Dreams starring Academy Award® winner Kevin Costner.
True Pitch mound products are the only portable mounds currently licensed by Little League® for official game use. True Pitch mounds are also the only mounds approved for official game use by Babe Ruth League as well as other noted baseball organizations including Pony Baseball and Dixie Youth Baseball.
John Goeders passed away in 2013. He saw his dream fulfilled of creating products to help perfect the pitch of baseball players, and leaves a legacy that will impact the game of baseball for generations to come.