Yankees’ Joe Girardi set to release wacky baseball/sci-fi gaming app

Joe Girardi has a reputation for being rather stiff and straight-laced.

Not exactly the kind of guy you’d expect to be fighting off aliens with a baseball bat. Or even creating an app that allows gamers to do so.

But that’s exactly what the New York Yankees manager has done (the part about creating the app). Next month, Girardi will unveil “Portalball,” a hybrid baseball/science-fiction game he created with app developer Appetizer Mobile, according to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal.

Girardi, who has been playing and managing baseball pretty much his entire adult life, is not tech-savvy by any means. But two years ago, he decided he wanted to help create a baseball-themed app he could play with his kids.

“It was just an idea that we could do with families,” Girardi said. “Kids connect on phones, and they connect with parents on phones. I know I text my kids a lot, and they respond quickly. It’s just another way to have connection with family.”

His manager set him up with Appetizer CEO Jordan Edelson, and the two started sending ideas back and forth. While the original idea was for a more traditional baseball game, somehow the rather wacky and yet kind of cool-sounding idea for “Portalball” emerged.

The game uses the camera function from a player’s phone to place the action wherever he or she might be ... say, your office. Suddenly a portal will open, sending baseballs from outer space hurtling toward Earth. Your job is to whack them away with a bat — which, by the way, “crackles and sparks, [with] flames licking off it,” should you choose to purchase that function, the Journal says.

The batter’s swing was based on Girardi’s. That’s right — the fate of our planet rests on the hitting ability of a career .267 hitter. There are also levels that incorporate pitching and fielding.

The app will be unveiled Aug. 5 in Times Square, where Girardi will face off with fans in rousing games of “Portalball.”

“I stink,” said the World Series-winning manager, sounding much more like the Girardi we’ve come to know and love. “I’ve gotta practice.”

Twitter: @chewkiii