BASEBALL BATTING PRACTICE METHOD AND APPARATUS

Abstract: A baseball batting practice apparatus (10) comprises a projection screen (11), a projector (12), a baseball pitching machine (16) and a conveyor system (20). The screen (11) has a passage (13) therethrough. The pitching machine (16) is positioned adjacent the passage. The conveyor system has push-plates (22) adjustably mounted to a conveyor belt (21). A moving video image of a pitcher pitching baseballs is projected upon the screen (11) so as to cause the image of the ball release to occur when the image of the pitcher's hand crosses the passage (13). The pitching of baseballs (B) by the pitching machine (16) is synchronized with the on-screen images by placements of the push-plates (22) on the conveyor belt.

Description: BASEBALL BATTING PRACTICE METHOD AND APPARATUS TECHNICAL FIELD This invention relates generally to sports training, and particularly to methods and apparatuses for use in practicing baseball batting. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Successfully batting a baseball pitched by a talented professional pitcher is regarded by many as among the most difficult feats of hand to eye coordination in sports. In fact, a success rate of 30% (a .300 batting average) is regarded as exemplary and a 25% success rate is typically regarded as the norm. These seemingly low success rates are attributable to, among other things, the speed with which a fast ball gets to home plate, the non-linear path taken by a curve ball and other pitches, and the individual pitcher's ability to conceal the type of pitch thrown and ball release. Various methods and machines have been used in efforts to improve the batting averages. For instance, it has been common to use a coach or other player to pitch balls to batters for practice. To save wear and tear on valuable professional baseball players and coaches, pitching machines have been developed and employed. One type of pitching machine that has been used has a rotating pitching arm which slings a baseball toward home plate. Another type of pitching machine has a pair of counter-rotating, resilient wheels into which a 5 baεteball is introduced. The resilient rapidly spinning wheels grip the baseball and propel it at a high rate of speed. While pitching machines of the type just described provide distinct savings over the use of professional baseball players and coaches, they provide 10 only limited help in training for batting balls thrown by actual pitchers. It has heretofore been thought that such machines are inherently too mechanical and rote to provide good simulation of actual playing conditions beyond that of propelling balls along established 15 - trajectories. Accordingly, it is seen that a need remains for an apparatus which more closely simulates the conditions - . faded by batters when batting against live pitchers. It is %o the provision of such, therefore, that the present 2Ur invention is primarily directed. *' • SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION » In a preferred form of the invention, a baseball or softball .batting practice apparatus comprises a screen f ''25 .having a passage therethrough and means for propelling balls in succession through the screen passage. Means _-- are provided for displaying a moving image of a baseball * 3 pitcher on the screen adjacent the passage. Means are aisό provided for synchronizing the ball propelling means 3U t with the moving image displaying means such that balls A appear to be thrown by the pitcher. In another form of the invention, a method of providing baseball or softball players with ball batting " practice comprises the steps of displaying a moving image 35 of _t baseball pitcher during his wind-up and delivery on a screen of a type having a passage therethrough. Balls are propelled through the screen passage during the display of ball deliveries by the pitcher image displayed on the screen. Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent upon reading the following specification when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 is a partially cut away, perspective illustration of a baseball batting practice apparatus that embodies principles of the present invention in a preferred form. Figs. 2a - 2d are perspective views of a portion of the apparatus of Fig. 1 with images of a baseball pitcher shown thereon during a wind up and delivery sequence. DETAILED DESCRIPTION With reference now with more detail to the drawings, in which like numerals represent like elements throughout the several views, there is shown in Fig. 1 a baseball batting practice apparatus 10 according to the present invention. The apparatus includes a large rectangular projection screen 11 and a projector 12 positioned to project moving images onto the screen. The projector is preferably of the type that generates and projects images from a video cassette although it may directly project images from motion picture film. The projection screen is preferably large enough to allow life-size images of baseball pitchers to be shown thereon. It has a centrally located passage 13 therethrough which is large enough to allow baseballs to pass easily through the screen. A pitching machine 16, such as that made by Jugs Manufacturing Company, Inc., is positioned behind the projection screen 11. It has a pair of counter-rotating friction wheels 17 and 18 located closely adjacent the passage 13. Baseballs B, are deliverable in succession to the-rotating friction wheels by means of a conveyor 5 system * 20. The conveyor system comprises an endless conveyor . belt 21, resilient push plates 22, adjustably mounted to the conveyor belt 21, and a constant speed driving motor 23. The conveyor belt 21 has a series of unshown evenly spaced markings thereon. 10 A conveyor drum 24 is spaced from the pitching machine 16 and a similar unshown drum is located near the resilient wheels 17 and 18 with the conveyor belt extending about the two drums. The motor 23 is coupled , ;to the drum 24 so that it may drive the conveyor belt. 15 The push-plates are mounted to the conveyor belt 21 by unshown fasteners. The push-plates are roughly one-half . as tall as the diameters of the baseballs B to allow them to present the baseballs to the friction wheels without the plates contacting the wheels. This is made possible 20 by the spacing between the drum and wheels. A hopper 26 is positioned adjacent the drum 24 from which baseballs B may be , sequentially fed onto the belt 21 through a delivery?* conduit 27. A synchronization control unit 30 is provided for synchronizing projector operations with 25 pitching machine operations. It has a start switch 31 and a stop switch 32. The start and stop switches are electrically coupled to both the driving motor 23 and the projector 12 by electrical lines 33 and 34, respectively. 30 OPERATION The baseball batting practice apparatus may be prepared J|or use as follows. A recording is prepared of a particular pitcher to be practiced against to include a series of pitching wind-ups and deliveries. The elapsed 35 time from the beginning of the recording medium, preferably a video tape, to the recorded delivery of the first pitch is determined as are time intervals between succeeding recorded pitches. The video cassette is inserted into a playback unit in the projector 12 and indexed to its beginning. An operator adjusts the positions of the push-plates 22 upon the conveyor belt 21 to correspond to the time intervals between the recorded pitches. A baseball B is placed against each of the push-plates located on the upper run of the conveyor belt. As the conveyor belt is driven by the motor at a constant rate of speed, the markings on the belt are easily used to establish the time between pitches executed by the machine. To begin operations, the conveyor belt 21 is manually advanced until the push-plate 22 for the first ball is set back from the friction wheels 17 and 18 a distance so that the baseball placed in front of it will move into engagement with the friction wheels in an elapsed time which corresponds to the time interval from the beginning of the video cassette to the projection of the first recorded pitch release. The operator then turns on the pitching machine 16 which causes friction wheels 17 and 18 to rotate. With the conveyor system 20 now in its initially indexed position, and with the spacing of the push-plates 22 corresponding to the time intervals between the various recorded pitches, and the video cassette in the projector 12, the operator simultaneously activates both the conveyor 20 and, the projector 12 by means of the synchronization control unit 30. This is done by pressing the start switch 31 which simultaneously activates both the conveyor and the projector. Baseballs are then delivered from the hopper 26 to a stop at the end of the conduit 27. As successive push-plates move past the conduit end they each retrieve a ball. In this manner balls are delivered sequentially _ -6- to the wheels.17 and 18 by the conveyor. This is done in synchronisation with the moving images projected on the screen 11 of a .pitcher. Just before each push-plate makes its closest 5 approach to the wheels it commences to descend in an orbital path around the drum located adjacent the screen. In this manner, the ball that it pushes thus contacts the whe&ls as the -push-plate reaches its orbital perigee relative to the wheels in avoidance with its making 10 contact with the wheels. The wheels immediately propel the ball out of the pitching machine through the passage. * As shown in Fig. 2a - 2d, the batter sees a pitcher P projected on the screen 11 go through his wind-up and delivery. As the pitcher's hand holding a baseball is 15 shown on the screen 13 moving towards a position in which the baseball is released, (Fig 2C) the pitcher's hand . approaches the passage 13. Just as the pitcher's hand crosses the passage 13, a ball B is propelled through the passage by pitching machine 16. To interrupt or stop the 20 pitching of baseballs, and the moving images on the screen 11, the stop switch 32 is depressed which simultaneously halts advancement of the video cassette tape in the projector 12 and advancement of the conveyor belt. 25 . It thus is seen that the combination of the conveyor belt driven at a constant speed, the spaced markings on thς -belt, the adjustably mounted push-plates, and the synctironization control unit provides a simple yet effective means for synchronizing the on-screen images 30 with.the delivery of balls from the pitching machine. So const uctad and used, the baseball batting practice " apparatus may enable baseball batters to practice batting against a particular pitcher and allow the batter to learn that particular pitcher's pitching motion. 35 As mentioned earlier, there is much that a pitcher can do in the manner of his delivery of the pitch to make the pitch more difficult to hit. For instance, many pitchers attempt to keep the baseball hidden from sight until the last possible moment before ball release. The baseball batting practice apparatus enables the batter to become familiar with the pitcher's release to be better able to time the beginning of his swing relative to the release of the ball. Of course, model and previously unknown pitchers may also be displayed. Other methods of synchronizing the delivery of balls with the on-screen image of a pitcher delivery may be employed. For instance, a queue of baseballs held within a conduit located adjacent the rotating wheels 17 and 18 may be used to deliver balls to the rotating wheels. The conduit may include means for ejecting one baseball at a time out of the conduit and into the spinning wheels in response to signals that an on-screen image of a pitcher is about to release a pitch. These signals may be generated by the use of optical codes on the video cassette tape in positions in the sequence of the images of the deliveries of pitches. In this case, detectors are used to detect the codes and to generate electric signals that control pitching machine operations. It thus is seen that a novel baseball batting practice method and apparatus is now provided which provides batters with improved practicing means. It should be understood, however, that the apparatus has been disclosed in a preferred form, and that many modifications, alterations and additions may be made thereto, other than those expressly mentioned, without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the following claims.

Claims: CLAIMS 1. An apparatus for studying the pitching motion of baseball pitchers and for practicing batting, said apparatus comprising, in combination, a display screen having a passage therethrough; means for propelling balls in succession through said screen passage; means for displaying a moving image of a baseball pitcher on said screen adjacent said passage, with the image of the pitcher going through a windup and delivery; and means for synchronizing said ball propelling means with said moving image displaying means. 2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said ball propelling means comprises a pair of friction wheels mounted adjacent said screen passage, means for rotating said friction wheels in opposite rotary directions, and means for conveying balls in succession to said pair of friction wheels. 3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein said ball conveying • means comprises an endless conveyor belt to which a series of push-plates are mounted, and means for driving said conveyor belt. 4. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein said push-plates are adjustably mounted to said conveyor belt. 5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said image displaying means comprises a projector mounted to one side of said screen, and wherein said ball propelling means is mounted to the side of said screen opposite said one side. 6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said image displaying means includes means for displaying a moving image of a hand of a pitcher at or adjacent to said screen passage as the image displays a baseball being released from the hand of the pitcher. 7. A method of providing baseball players with ball batting practice against individual pitchers to learn the pitching movements of the individual pitchers comprising the steps of displaying a moving image of the baseball pitcher during his windup and delivery on a screen of a type having a passage therethrough, and propelling a ball through the screen passage during the display of ball delivery by the pitcher on the screen. 8. The method of claim 7 wherein an image of the pitcher's hand is displayed at or adjacent to the screen passage during delivery. 9. The method of claim 7 wherein a succession of pitcher windups and deliveries are displayed on the screen with the intervals between deliveries varied in time, and wherein balls are propelled in succession of deliveries displayed. 10. In a baseball pitching machine of the type having two counter-rotating wheels for propelling a baseball, the improvement comprising; a screen having a passage, said screen positioned adjacent the pitching machine in a configuration wherein a baseball may be propelling by the wheels through said passage; means for displaying a moving image of a baseball pitcher throwing a pitch on said screen; and means for introducing a baseball into the wheels in close synchronization with selected images displayed on said screen.

Inventors: HALL MICKEY A, HALL, MICKEY, A.
Applicants: HALL MICKEY A, HALL, MICKEY, A.
Application year: 1990
Main classification: A63B
IPC codes: A63B69