Ep. 20 | Cade Griffis, Founder & CEO of D-BAT Sports
What You'll Learn in This Episode
Cade Griffis, founder and CEO of D-BAT Sports, joins Ross Hawley to share the story behind the training-facility company, its approach to serving players at every level, and the coaching and parenting lessons that have shaped his life in baseball.
From one location to roughly 185 locations across the United States, Canada, and China, D-BAT grew through a balanced business model and a simple mission: help more young players stay in the game by making baseball more fun.
The highlights:
- Why D-BAT's diversified revenue model protects facilities from relying on a single customer type
- How serving recreational players helps more athletes continue their baseball journey
- Why the best instructors are often teachers who had to work to master their craft
- The coaching advice Cade gives first-time coaches: make every player feel seen
- How his father's steady support and accountability shaped his approach to sports and business
- Why parents should protect fun and avoid turning a child's 0-for-3 into a crisis
- What families should look for in a select-baseball coach and organization
- How players can create value by identifying and developing a "super tool"
- Why baseball should retain its relationships, traditions, and human elements as technology evolves
Building D-BAT by Solving Real Problems
Griffis did not set out to build hundreds of facilities. After operating sporting-goods company B-BAT Sports and visiting indoor academies across the country, he noticed that many were dependent on only one or two revenue streams.
That observation shaped D-BAT's model. Every facility develops six core revenue streams and measures each one against similar-sized markets. The goal is not to lead one category while falling behind everywhere else. It is to build a balanced business that is not held hostage by one vendor, employee, customer group, or team program.
"We're here to help the kids, no matter what level, and we're here to try to make the game more fun."
D-BAT also stays neutral among organizations. Rather than operating its own teams or favoring one club, it aims to help recreational players, select players, high-school players, and every organization in the community.
Help the Player in Front of You
Griffis believes indoor facilities can become too focused on elite players. But the participation funnel runs in the other direction: far more players are involved at younger ages, and many leave the sport after frustrating experiences.
The job of an instructor is not to promise a 12-year-old a professional future. It is to help a player take the next achievable step: move from Double-A to Triple-A, make a junior-varsity roster, earn a varsity spot, or find a college opportunity.
Improvement changes a player's experience. When a ninth-place hitter develops enough to become a seventh-place hitter, the game becomes more enjoyable, confidence rises, and the player is more likely to keep playing.
Development That Keeps Players in the Game
- Meet players at their current level instead of projecting a distant outcome.
- Set the next meaningful goal, then help the player work toward it.
- Teach skills that make the game more enjoyable and build confidence.
- Value the recreational player as much as the elite player.
- Remember that player retention begins with a positive experience.
Great Coaches Build Relationships
Griffis credits many successful instructors not to their playing resume, but to their ability to teach, connect, and earn a young player's trust. He recalls hiring a Division III player named John Howard who became one of the best instructors D-BAT had because kids and parents loved him and he could truly teach.
His advice to a first-time coach is practical: find a moment during the season to put an arm around every player, from the cleanup hitter to the last player on the roster, and let each one know he matters.
There are times coaches need to be demanding. But players also need to know that the coach is thinking about them. Those relationships can outlast the season by decades, and Griffis still hears from former players asking for advice as adults and business owners.
Steady Support and Honest Accountability
Griffis learned balance from his father, a basketball coach who did not react dramatically to either success or failure. After games, the message was consistent: "I really enjoyed watching you play." Three home runs and an 0-for-3 night received the same steady support.
His father also refused to solve problems for him. When young Cade complained about not getting enough basketball playing time after scoring 12 points in a short appearance, his father told him the coach would play the best players and challenged him to practice more.
The lesson was accountability. Parents should support their children, but they should not interfere with coaches or remove every obstacle. Players grow when they learn that preparation, improvement, and response to adversity are their responsibility.
Keep Youth Baseball Fun
For Griffis, the simplest parenting advice is to keep the game fun. Baseball already asks young players to handle failure in a very public way, and parents can unintentionally add to that pressure with big emotional reactions after a game.
"The minute this game stops being fun for your child, it's going to be short-lived."
An 0-for-3 or 0-for-4 day is not the end of the world. Parents can reset the environment by playing catch with a teenager the same way they did when the child was nine, enjoying the time together, and treating youth baseball as a long-term experience rather than an urgent evaluation.
Griffis shares one parenting moment he regrets: criticizing his son after repeated ground balls instead of recognizing that his son did not need his father's intensity in that moment. The reflection reinforces his broader point: parents should not expect their children to carry the same drive, goals, or emotional responses they had as players.
Choose the Coach, Not the Logo
When families evaluate select baseball, Griffis recommends starting with opportunity and development. A player needs meaningful playing time, unless practices are clearly helping that player improve in another way.
At younger ages, the logo on the jersey matters far less than the coach. Families should look for leaders whose values align with their own, treat players fairly, have no hidden agenda, and create an environment where players want to return next season.
Players have responsibility too. Griffis encouraged his son to "make the coach play you" by becoming valuable. That does not require being the biggest or most talented player. It can mean becoming the best bunter, most reliable strike thrower, strongest defender, or most consistent on-base threat.
Find Your Super Tool
Every player should search for a skill that makes him hard to leave out of the lineup. Griffis calls it a super tool: a specialty that creates clear value for the team.
He points to a former Dallas Baptist pitcher who became an All-American by dropping down sidearm and to Tim Wakefield finding a path through the knuckleball. Griffis's own switch-hitting differentiated him from other right-handed hitters.
The larger lesson applies beyond baseball: create enough value that a team, coach, or employer cannot easily replace you. Identify what you do well, improve it deliberately, and make it useful to the people around you.
Preserve the Human Side of Baseball
Griffis understands that technology, launch angle, spin rate, and analytics have a place in the modern game. But he cautions against moving so quickly that baseball loses its one-on-one coaching relationships, traditions, and small details.
At its core, the game still comes down to the player in the box, the pitcher on the mound, and the fielder making a play. Those moments cannot be fully computerized. His hope is that baseball embraces useful innovation without forgetting the human relationships and fundamentals that make the game meaningful.
Episode Timestamps
Tap any timestamp to jump the player straight to that moment.
- 2:55 - D-BAT's growth and expanding locations
- 5:50 - The business lessons behind D-BAT's balanced revenue model
- 10:05 - Serving recreational players and helping athletes take the next step
- 16:14 - Humility, teaching, and the relationships that make great coaches
- 20:35 - Why D-BAT franchised after years of operating one location
- 24:26 - Cade's love of baseball and the path it created for his life
- 27:10 - His father's steady support and accountability
- 33:19 - Advice for parents: protect the fun
- 40:06 - Choosing a select-baseball coach and creating value as a player
- 45:08 - Slowing down, preserving tradition, and using technology wisely
- 48:24 - Entrepreneurial advice: build around your passion
Episode 20 features Cade Griffis, founder and CEO of D-BAT Sports, on youth baseball development, coaching, parenting, entrepreneurship, and keeping the game fun.