By Tony Scott
As the weather starts to warm up and the baseball season nears its start, outdoor enthusiasts are digging their “stuff” out of their garages, including those familiar-looking boards with holes used for the game “bags.”
Known by some as “cornhole,” the object of the game is to toss hand-size beanbags into or onto the opposing team’s board. The game has taken off in recent years and can be found in bars and backyards during the warmer months.
Players typically enjoy tossing a few cold beverages back while they toss bags, and a Yorkville man has invented a product he says will help take the bag playing experience to another level.
Jason Pesola invented what he calls the Backyard Barkeep, a stand that is both a beverage holder and a score-keeper. Using a steel frame, it can either be placed into a stand to be set on hard surfaces, or plunged into the ground.
Pesola, a five-year resident of Yorkville, is president of Moguls, Inc., a 15-year-old marketing company that operates out of an office in downtown Yorkville and represents a variety of firms, including Coca-Cola.
Pesola said he invented the Backyard Barkeep while, what else, playing bags in his backyard with his friends.
“Backyard Barkeep was something I came up with playing bags in the backyard, using my wife’s wire candle holders as somewhere to put your beer or whatever you happen to be drinking, so it doesn’t spill,” he said. “We’d have these bag parties in the backyard and people would come over, and I’d always grab these candle holders and put them out by the bag boards. Everybody would say, ‘Oh, man, somebody probably invented one of these things and they’re laying on a beach right now in Tahiti.’”
He ordered some competitors’ products, did research and decided he wanted to “build a better mousetrap,” and built some prototypes.
“We built the originals out of wood, then we went to plastic,” he said.
He added a scorecard that can be hung onto the Barkeep, so players can keep track of the score.
Pesola ended up hiring a company out of Des Plaines, IMS Engineered Products, to manufacture the Backyard Barkeep.
“I wanted to make sure it was made in America, by Americans,” he said.
He showed the product off at shows and events, and “All of a sudden, it took off.”
“I really do believe in the product,” he said. “I know for a fact that it’s the best built and manufactured drink-holding, score-keeping system on the market today.”
Pesola said the Barkeep is a “complete product.”
“I even have built-in bottle openers, so that alleviates the need to run back and forth from the house,” he said.
For more information on the Backyard Barkeep, go to HYPERLINK "http://www.backyardbarkeep.com/"www.backyardbarkeep.com.