Pro pitcher, Evolucia create glowing baseball

SARASOTA — New York Yankees' pitching legend Mariano Rivera is partnering with lighting company Evolucia Inc. to create a light-emitting diode baseball.

Preparing to retire from baseball at the end of the 2013 season, Rivera asked the Sarasota-based firm to create regulation-sized commemorative retirement baseball that would feature the company's LED lights.

Rivera is a stakeholder in Evolucia.

The company has developed a LED-lighted baseball that is the same size and weight as a regulation Major League baseball. The ball leaves a trail of light as it is thrown, and is powered by a rechargeable battery.

Rivera sees the baseball as a way to encourage people in the United States and his native Central America to convert to LED lighting technology.

“This is the real 'cutter,'” Rivera says in a press release of Evolucia's LED lighting products. “By switching to LED lights, we can all cut our electricity bills by 60% to 80%. That's important to people here in the United States, and it's vital to those in Panama.”

Together with former Red Sox and Mets pitcher Pedro Martinez, a native of the Dominican Republic, Rivera hopes to encourage both Latin American countries to update their lighting systems using the more efficient Evolucia technology. Evolucia is retrofitting Rivera's church in New Rochelle, N.Y., with energy-efficient LED lighting solution, which Rivera says will be the center of his post-retirement life.

The limited edition LED Baseball includes Rivera's signature No. 42, as well as his top Hall of Fame career stats. Each ball is fitted with eight custom embedded Evolucia LED lights that have a navy blue glow.

The baseball will go on sale today with a portion of the proceeds benefitting Rivera's charitable foundation.