Panama City, Florida

850-691-8669






16. ..... Batting Cages (Pros and Cons)

..........................................
Batting cage pros and cons
...................... By Tony Scoglio

There are a variety of different types of batting cages and apparatus: Master pitching machines, Atec machines, Jug machines, machines with arms, machines with wheels, automatic ball fed machines, manually fed machines, the list goes on and on.

There are advantages and disadvantages to all these machines, but the most important factor is knowing how to use them.

There is a misconception, that if you go to the batting cages often you will become a good hitter. To some extent that is true, but without the proper focus you will improve as cage hitter only.

For the most part the skills acquired at the cages won’t transfer to the field in real game situations, under pressure. Unless you have had adequate instruction in both hitting and in the use of the type of batting machine you are using, it can be a detriment.

  • First, all batting machines affect timing if you don't use them properly and some should be avoided all together.

  • Second, machines throw balls uniformly, making each pitch predictable. Pitchers are taught to throw around a hitters strengths.

  • Third, if you have bad habits or weak technique you will enhance the very imperfections you are trying to eliminate, ultimately hindering your development and potential.
A batting cage is a tool. It can not teach you to hit. It’s a tool for grooving a fundamentally sound swing into a perfected swing. Relying on a batting cage to take the place of professional instruction will only ingrain peculiarities in the signature of a hitters swing. Good luck trying to fix it then!

Batting cages are fun for everyone and should be part of a practice regiment. But if you are serious about playing competitively, it’s recommended that you build a good instructional hitting foundation long before using a batting cage.

For more information about professional instruction contact:
Tony Scoglio, Professional Baseball/Softball Instructor and Program Coordinator
Direct: (708) 990-9000
Email: tscoglio@gmail.com
Website: http://tonyscoglio.blogspot.com/
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STAR SPANGLE BANNER LYRICS

O! say can you see by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

STAR SPANGLE BANNER POEM

STAR SPANGLE BANNER POEM
.
O! say can you see by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
.
On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
.
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
.
O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation.
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave![12]
.
.
In indignation over the start of the Civil War, Oliver Wendell Holmes[13] added a fifth stanza to the song in 1861 which appeared in songbooks of the era.[14]
.
When our land is illumined with liberty's smile,
If a foe from within strikes a blow at her glory,
Down, down with the traitor that tries to defile
The flag of the stars, and the page of her story!
By the millions unchained,
Who their birthright have gained
We will keep her bright blazon forever unstained;
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave,
While the land of the free is the home of the brave.
.
[edit] Alternative lyrics In a version hand-written by Francis Scott Key in 1840, the third line reads "Whose bright stars and broad stripes, through the clouds of the fight,".[15]