Abstract: The invention is a user control panel for a pitching system with a pitching mechanism. The control panel allows a user to separately control ball speed and tilt angle. The control panel also displays an estimated height at which the ball will cross the plate for the selected ball speed and tilt angle. In the preferred embodiment, a vertical row of lamps shows the estimated ball height. The control panel can include symbology to indicate strike zones for batters of different heights.

Abstract: The invention is a pitching system with a pitching mechanism. A control panel allows a user to separately control ball speed and tilt angle. The control panel also displays an estimated height at which the ball will cross the plate for the selected ball speed and tilt angle. In the preferred embodiment, a vertical row of lamps shows the estimated ball height. The control panel can include symbology to indicate strike zones for batters of different heights. To operate the batting cage, the batter selects the desired ball speed. The control panel displays an estimated ball height based on the selected ball speed and current tilt angle. The batter then adjusts the tilt angle of the pitching mechanism until a desired ball height is reached. The batter then starts the machine. In this manner, the batter avoids wasting balls selecting a preferred choice of ball speed and height. The batter can also change ball speed and tilt angle during a pitching sequence, to alter the strike zone through which balls are pitched.

Abstract: A baseball suitable for continuous use in a pitching machine comprises a molded, resilient polyurethane foam sphere having a type A-2 shore durometer hardness of less than about eighty to eighty-five. The sphere has a smooth polyurethane surface skin, with the surface of the sphere being provided with a regular pattern comprising a multiplicity of cup-like or hemispherical depressions substantially covering the surface. The baseball has the advantage of durability as well as the advantage of being formed economically in one operation from a homogeneous composition. The cup-like depressions enable the ball to travel greater distances than would be expected for the resilient material, and enhance the accuracy with which the ball can be pitched, bringing the ball substantially within the range of initial performance of a conventional or regulation baseball.

Abstract: A baseball batting range includes a plurality of pitching machines positioned for propelling baseballs toward corresponding batting stations. The range further includes a sloping floor and a sump where the batted baseballs are collected, and a conveyor which delivers the balls from the sump to a distribution hopper elevated with respect to the sump and the pitching machines. Gravity tube magazines fed from the distribution hopper hold a number of baseballs which are metered to the respective pitching machines. The sump and the distribution hopper are provided with agitators facilitating continuous movement of the baseballs.

Abstract: A baseball pitching machine includes a pair of adjacent ball engaging wheels each provided with a groove or concave surface formed in a body of an elastomeric material. As the baseball is received between the grooved wheels, the groove edges are laterally distorted, since the edges are unrestrained, to grip the baseball securely on opposite sides thereof and pitch the baseball in an accurately predetermined direction.

Abstract: A football is projected with rotation on its longitudinal axis, in the manner of a forward pass, when it is fed into the space between, and thereby gripped frictionally by, the laterally spaced, confronting surfaces of a pair of driven wheels which confronting surfaces move in a forward, football throwing direction but in planes which extend forward angularly to opposite sides of the line on which the football is projected, the planes forming an included acute angle with each other. The speed and direction of football rotation may be varied by adjusting said angular relationship, and the speed of forward projection of the football may be varied by adjusting the rotational speed of the wheels. By adjusting said confronting surfaces to a common plane and feeding a football into the space therebetween such that said surfaces grip the football below its longitudinal centerline, the football is projected therefrom with rotation on its transverse axis, in the manner of an end-over-end kick-off.