Powerhouse: King man is one of the nation's elite hitters in professional slow-pitch softball

BJ Fulk has hit upper-deck shots at major-league ballparks, has been high-fived by Chipper Jones and has a bat named for him.

But he's not beyond lending his talent to local recreation-level softball teams.

Fulk, a professional slow-pitch softball player from King who travels around the country playing in major tournaments and awing crowds with home-run exhibitions, was spotted playing in a church-league game last month. He was hard to miss, at 6-3 and 270 pounds.

"I get phone calls all the time, ‘You want to play for us this weekend?' " Fulk, 32, said.

He's a popular guy, and he's known to occasionally give away free goodies from his equipment sponsor.

"Almost every night I hear, ‘You don't have an extra pair of batting gloves, do you?'"

Fulk doesn't mind, and teammates are glad to have one of the top power hitters on the planet on their side. They like the show he can produce on typical recreation fields that have inadequate dimensions to hold the 500-foot shots he's capable of hitting.

There's always temptation by opponents to issue a well-advised intentional walk, or for a third baseman to hide, but Fulk actually gets a good number of pitches to hit.

"There's really only one team that walks me," he said. "I think everybody else wants to see me hit."

Luke Jones, a church-league teammate of Fulk's, traveled to Turner Field in Atlanta last month to see Fulk win a home-run derby by belting 13 of 15 pitches into the outfield seats.

"He's a beast at the plate," Jones said. "To see the average guy hit and then to see him come up and hit it so much farther than everybody else is unreal. It's pretty amazing. He can put on a show."

Fulk made it to softball's big show in 2000, working his way up from Class C to Class A and eventually to the majors, an elite level that scouts and recruits players.

"I basically got called up," Fulk said.

He is in his first season playing for Resmondo/Worth, the top-ranked team in the country and the winner of eight of 11 major tournaments this year. He travels coast-to-coast 18 to 20 weekends a year for competition and exhibitions.

Next up is the big show -- the USSSA World Series for men's major softball. It will start Wednesday at the Disney Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando, Fla.

"This team has won it, but I never have, and I've been going there for nine years," Fulk said. "I'd love to win this one."

Fulk, who oddly enough lost interest and didn't play high-school sports, started playing softball in 1995, the year he graduated from South Stokes.

He works as an electrician for a company in King but makes a fine living playing softball.

"If you're one of the top players, if you have a bat sponsorship and are one of the better hitters, you can make between $50,000 to $100,000 a year," Fulk said. "If you're one of the poster boys, you can do pretty well.

"But it's a job. There is pressure. If you don't perform, it's ‘We'll see you later.'"

Part of his deal is a bat endorsement. Worth manufactures a "BJ Fulk signature edition Mayhem 120," a composite bat that sells for about $200.

Fulk, a left-handed hitter who swings a 34-inch, 28-ounce version, loves the bat but wasn't sold on the color at first.

"I'm a Duke Blue Devil fan, and they brought it out, and it was Carolina blue," Fulk said. "I called and said, ‘I'd like to get the color changed. Everybody around here knows I hate the Tar Heels.' But they sent me some picture and actually the Carolina blue really stood out. So I left it Carolina blue and took the heat."

Fulk, who won a national home-run title in 2007 by hitting 80 home runs in 12 major tournaments, said that bat speed is important to hitting a softball a long way but that technique is the most essential component.

"You can't just go rip it like a baseball," he said. "In softball, if you want to hit home runs, you spin the ball so you want to hit the bottom half of the ball. You get that spin and rotation on it, and it's going to go farther."

Fulk has impressed major-leaguers with his power, which he often demonstrates in exhibitions before major-league games.

"Chipper Jones loves it," Fulk said. "And we met John Smoltz one time when he was in Atlanta -- he was in shorts and a T-shirt going into the park -- and he was like, ‘Oh, you all are the softball guys.' He took off running and said he had to change real quick so he could see us hit. And in San Francisco, the guys are always jacked up about it in that park."

Fulk outdid himself last year, hitting a ball out of Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati. The blast was estimated to have traveled 535 feet.

"I couldn't have hit it at a better time," he said. "It was a night game, and the place was sold out. When I hit it completely out of the stadium, everyone went wild. It was the third or fourth ball ever hit out of the park. Adam Dunn had hit one out, and the year before another softball guy hit one completely out. It's a thrill to get to do this."

tbowman@wsjournal.com


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The Fulk file

• Name: Billy Joe Fulk

• Born: Oct. 13, 1976

• Hometown: King

• Family: Single

• Education: South Stokes High School

• Occupation: Electrician for Jerry Wilkins Electric in King; professional slow-pitch softball player

• Quote/philosophy: "The biggest thing is hitting strikes. You can't get in the box and hit the first pitch you see. You need to wait on a good strike. You need to be selective to be a good, consistent hitter."