Batting Cage

A batting cage is an enclosed cage for baseball players to practice the skill of batting.

It is usually made of netting or a chain-link fence and rectangular in shape. A batter stands at one end of the cage, with a pitching machine (or less often a live pitcher) at the opposing end. The pitcher or pitching machine pitches baseballs to the batter, who hits them.

The cage is used to keep the baseballs within a certain range so that they're easy to pick up and are not lost. Batting cages are found both indoors and outdoors.

The interior floor of a batting cage may be sloped, to automatically feed the baseballs back into the automatic pitching machine. The automatic pitching machines using sloped floors usually pitch out a synthetic baseball or softball, rather than an official solid core leather hardball.

Commercial batting cages pitch with several different speeds, which can range from 30 (generally softball) to 90 miles (140 km) per hour.

Cricket nets, used by cricket batsmen are similar in purpose, but bowling machines are much less common than facing a live bowler (this reflects the fact that nearly half of the members of a cricket team are specialist bowlers, and therefore proportionately more bowling practice is needed in cricket than pitching practice in baseball).

Baseball concepts (Baseball glossary)

Field	Backstop Baseball diamond Batter's box Batter's eye Bullpen Dugout Foul territory Foul pole Infield On-deck circle Outfield Strike zone Warning track

Equipment	Bat Ball Glove (defense) Batting glove Batting helmet Cap Doughnut Stirrups Uniform Uniform number Shin guard Protective cup Batting cage Pitching machine

Game process	Innings Extra innings Out Seventh-inning stretch Batting order Run On-deck

Batting	At bat Plate appearance Hit and run Sacrifice bunt Sacrifice fly Slap bunt Baltimore chop Bunt Foul ball Foul tip Ground rule double Hit Infield hit Hit by pitch Strikeout Single Double Triple Home run Inside-the-park home run Checked swing Walk-off home run Lefty-righty switch Double switch Line drive Batting count Sweet spot Pull hitter Hitting for the cycle

Pitching	Balk Beanball Breaking ball Brushback pitch Changeup Curveball Fastball Full count Inside pitching Knuckleball Passed ball Pitch count Pitchout Quick pitch Shutout Slider Spitball Strikeout Striking out the side Wild pitch Time of pitch No-hitter Perfect game

Baserunning	Balk Bases loaded Caught stealing Left on base Scoring position Small ball Squeeze play Stolen base Tag up Walk Contact play

Fielding	Double play Force play Hidden ball trick In-between hop Triple play Unassisted triple play Pickoff Wheel play Catch Fourth out Rundown Tag out Appeal play Assist Infield shift Wall climb Fielder's choice Defensive indifference

Miscellaneous	In flight Infield fly rule Bench-clearing brawl Pepper Safe Uncaught third strike Interference Golden sombrero Ground rules Instant replay Baseball jargon Slump Bench jockey Dead ball

Famous quotes containing the word cage:

“Out of the cage came Eve,
escaping, escaping.
She was clothed in her skin like the sun
and her ankles were not for sale.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)

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