Patent ID: 7011084

Claim:
An improved power-driven friction impelling thruster-wheel combination adapted to provide variable trajectory dynamics for a conventional ball/pitching-machine; said thruster-wheel combination comprising: a set of two or more opposed thruster-wheels each with a resilient tread-surface portion and rotating on discrete drive-spindles aligned on a common radial-plane, at least one of said tread-surfaces including an impetus-modifying formation means upon its perimeter; whereby dependent upon the random positioning occurrence relationship of the driven said thruster-wheel tread-surfaces in which a said impetus-modifying formation can become laterally impinged momentarily against the surface of a given ball passing through the existing thruster-aperture of a conventional ball/pitching-machine, thereby providing an unpredictable ball-pitching trajectory event causing ball to arrive toward a ball-batter person at a desirably surprising region of their strike-zone.