Batting cages - Bats vs Balls

[4Martini]

We went and got an Anderson Rockettech bat based off threads here to use at the local cages.

They use those foam core softball looking balls.

Now my daughter is cracking two balls most days she hits. The management has said a few things about her new bat.

It’s a legal bat.

Would you feel bad breaking that many balls? Would you change something? What?

She was breaking one about half the time before the new (to us- 2012) bat.

 

[Lemond]

If she is breaking cage balls, they probably should have been replaced years ago. Sounds like the cage mgr is a cheap skate.

 

[PJR202]

If she is breaking cage balls, they probably should have been replaced years ago. Sounds like the cage mgr is a cheap skate.

I'm apparently way late to the discussion, but it sounds like dry rot. I'm not certain which balls they're using, but I would bet a rockettech hitting a very worn and old Jugs machine ball could bust it.

 

[4Martini]

I'm apparently way late to the discussion, but it sounds like dry rot. I'm not certain which balls they're using, but I would bet a rockettech hitting a very worn and old Jugs machine ball could bust it.

They are not the dimple balls but the weird foam ones that look like softballs with fake pained on red laces on them. They are not old as they have been writing the dates on them to figure out why so many break. I think they are just weak.

 

[uncdrew]

Yeah, sounds like old crap. Most elite softballers have exit velos in the 70s and they aren't breaking many balls (from what I see and hear).

Anderson aluminum bats are tanks. And great if worried about breaking bats. What I've found, however, is that over time your daughter will acquire more composite bats as she tries out new models, moves up in size, has back-ups, etc. I might be a bit of a bat junkie, but my 14U daughter has several old LXTs, Ghosts and Xenos we use for batting machines and cold weather. Haven't used the Anderson in years.

 

[3girls]

My girls hit with an old rocket tech for years and hit thousands of cage balls. Never remember one breaking and they were all power hitters.

the balls are junk, nothing to do with the bat.

 

[4Martini]

Yeah, sounds like old crap. Most elite softballers have exit velos in the 70s and they aren't breaking many balls (from what I see and hear).

Anderson aluminum bats are tanks. And great if worried about breaking bats. What I've found, however, is that over time your daughter will acquire more composite bats as she tries out new models, moves up in size, has back-ups, etc. I might be a bit of a bat junkie, but my 14U daughter has several old LXTs, Ghosts and Xenos we use for batting machines and cold weather. Haven't used the Anderson in years.

She broke one and got nervous about it- so I just got her a tank so she wouldn’t have to worry about it. Bonus - she can keep it by her bed in college for self defense. She practices in an unheated barn a bunch and it can be in the teens. $40 on eBay and she’s happy.

 

[cnardone]

That should be a Mastercard commercial. Cage bat - $40. Making a teenage girl happy for only a$40 bat, priceless.

 

[dogpatch]

Jugs brand dimple balls are the best cage/machine balls. Other brand dimple balls also hold up very well and are acceptable. If cage balls split, it is not the fault of the batter or the bat. Our dimple balls hold up for years, withstanding tens of thousands of hits per year!