May 21, 2008 4:10 pm US/Pacific
Batting Practice Goes Virtual
(CBS)
When I was a kid, batting cages were pretty simple places to go and have an afternoon of fun, or perhaps a birthday party.
You'd get in the cage, and a ball machine would launch one pitch after another at you, pretty much the same thing over and over. It really wasn't a substitute for being out on the field.
A new system called Probatter brings you a bit closer to the real action. It's a pitching simulator - it consists of a ball machine behind a big screen, plus a projector and computer to control it all.
You set the types of pitches you want, left handed or right handed pitcher, big league or little league and it's all right there on the screen. Each pitch is a potential change up, since the machine can adjust after every pitch in seconds.
It's a fun way to train, and definitely a bit different from the old fashioned method.
On the web:
http://www.advancedaccel.com/Rancho Cucamonga
Probatter
http://www.probatter.com/
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