Former big-league pitcher Kevin Jepsen hopes his new outdoor game is a hit.
By John Johnston, Associate Editor
November 2020
Kevin Jepsen, F510810, made his Major League Baseball debut as a relief pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels on September 8, 2008. He pitched one inning and faced three New York Yankees batters: Derek Jeter, Bobby Abreu, and Alex Rodriguez. Three up, three down.
It was an excellent start to a big-league career that spanned 11 seasons. In addition to the Angels, Kevin pitched for the Tampa Bay Rays, the Minnesota Twins, and the Texas Rangers before retiring in 2018.
“I miss the competition,” said Kevin, who began playing baseball at age 5. “What I don’t miss is the way my body felt after playing. It takes a toll on your body, playing that many years.”
Kevin Jepsen; his wife, Andrea; and their son, Henry.
Now pain-free, he looks back fondly on his career. “I would not trade any part of it. I got to play a kid’s game for a living, something I loved.”
These days, he’s focused on another outdoor game, CupCheck, which he and some of his baseball buddies developed. It’s a game you might see people playing at a campground, on a beach, at a tailgate party, or in a backyard. As in baseball, hand-eye coordination is a plus. And while it may not produce the same adrenaline rush as pitching in a ballpark full of cheering fans, CupCheck isn’t likely to wear a body out.
It can be played one-on-one or in teams of two, with players standing opposite each other, like in cornhole. Two sets of vertical poles are set about 20 feet apart. Plastic cups are placed upside down on the top of the poles. Players score points by striking a pole with a flying disc and knocking a cup to the ground; or by tossing a disc between the poles without knocking off cups. The player or team not throwing the disc can score by catching a dislodged cup in midair.
The inspiration for CupCheck can be traced to a game that Kevin and some of his baseball teammates played during their downtime. Known variously as Polish horseshoes, Spanish horseshoes, frisbeener, and frisknock, it involves holding a drink in one hand while trying to throw a flying disc at glass bottles that rest on top of poles. “It wasn’t enough action for us,” Kevin said. So they tinkered.
One day in the summer of 2016 while playing for the Tampa Bay Rays, Kevin was in Los Angeles for a series with the Dodgers. On an off day, he and teammates Matt Andriese, Curt Casali, and Drew Smyly headed to a beach with items that Kevin’s agent had rounded up: some 6-foot PVC pipes, plastic cups, and a couple of flying discs. They pushed the PVC pipes into the sand, placed plastic cups on top of the pipes, and began playing an early version of CupCheck. “It was awesome,” Kevin said.
A few months later, Kevin and his wife, Andrea, took their RV — and the PVC pipes, discs, and cups — to a NASCAR event at Phoenix Raceway in Arizona. The Jepsens camped in the infield with other RVers, and they met up with several of Kevin’s teammates, who wanted to play the new game. But they had to figure out how to keep the PVC pipes standing upright on an asphalt parking lot. “We got some 2-by-4s, some cinderblocks, and made a base for the PVC pipes,” Kevin said.
Then they started playing.
“Everybody was flocking over to see what this game was,” Andrea recalled. “I couldn’t throw a (disc) very well, but I still played and had a blast.”
Said Kevin: “We just got swarmed by the other fans coming over, (saying), ‘What are you playing? How do you play it? Where do I buy it?’ That was kind of our ‘aha’ moment where we said, ‘We should make this thing.’”
That’s easier said than done. Developing the game into a marketable product meant overcoming many hurdles, a process that took three years. Fortunately, Kevin didn’t have to go it alone. He found plenty of willing partners among his baseball buddies.
“There was no arm-twisting. From the time you play, you’re kind of hooked,” Kevin said. “I don’t do well at trying to talk somebody into something. This was a case of guys saying, ‘If you have room, I’d love to be part of this.’”
In addition to Andriese and Casali, the partners include current and former major leaguers Alex Cobb, Jake Diekman, Michael Kohn, Evan Longoria, Yasiel Puig, Garrett Richards, and Kirby Yates. Kevin was teammates at one time or another with all of them except Puig; those two connected by having the same agent.
Coming up with the game’s name was a collective effort, Kevin said. So, too, was the decision to assist a charity. As the official launch of the game approached in May 2019, the CupCheck backers learned that April is Testicular Cancer Awareness Month. Kevin connected with Mike Craycraft, executive director and founder of the Testicular Cancer Society (www.testicularcancersociety.org), and a partnership was formed.
“One of the biggest challenges with testicular cancer is lack of awareness,” Mr. Craycraft said. It is the most common form of cancer in men ages 15 to 35, but when diagnosed early, the survival rate is nearly 100 percent, he said. So, included with each CupCheck game is information that explains how to perform a testicular self-exam. The partnership also has given Mr. Craycraft opportunities to set up information booths at NASCAR events alongside the CupCheck team.
He counts himself among CupCheck’s fans. “I’ve played it a ton. I love it. It’s an absolute blast,” he said, adding, “It can get addicting.”
These days, when Kevin and Andrea hit the road in their 2018 Jayco Greyhawk Type C motorhome, they always have a few CupCheck games stowed on board.
“Everybody who sees it wonders what it is,” Andrea said. “It might take them a second to walk up to us and ask us about it. We make it known we’re having fun.”
Which is another way of saying that her husband, the former big-league pitcher, may have hit a home run.
For more information about CupCheck, visit www.cupcheckgame.com.