Cage balls myth or fact?

[coach james]

I use real softballs all the time. They say not good for the wheel?

I was told the wheel was not good for the
stitching on the ball.

Right... the jugs machine will destroy the ball laces and peels the cover off of real balls. And if the laces catch the wheel just right the ball flight is very unpredictable. I've hit some kids before....stick to unseamed cage balls in the cage

 

[WARRIORMIKE]

Jugs Sting Free are IMO the best ball for batting cages.

As far as using real balls for machines is that dimples are more accurate out of the wheeled machine vs real balls. The stitching of the ball can grab the wheel and you will have a inconsistent pitch. The only machine I would recommend for throwing real balls would be the Atec Arm Machine or the Iron Mikes. Only cause they do not use wheels

Hope this helps some of you out.

 

[rdbass]

I was told the wheel was not good for the stitching on the ball.

I find softballs every where. I pick them up on my walks. Buckets of softballs.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

Right. A Jugs machine will destroy softballs, but I just use the same ones over and over (for outfield drills.) The machine balls can break a bat or your hand, so I just stay away from hitting off the machine.

 

[sleepwalker]

My dd broke an aluminum bat in half at the batting cages when she was hitting balls at age 14. She thought it was one of the coolest things that she had done.

She won't use one of her bats at a batting cage and tells everyone of her teammates not to use their $300 bats at the cages. None of her teammates believe that she broke a bat at the cages because they have never seen anyone break a bat at the cages.

I know that aluminum bats can be broken at batting cages. So I am going with fact on this one. I couldn't tell you that it would happen on the 1st hit, the 1000th hit or even the 10,000th hit, but it could happen.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

The thing is, it is the $300 composite bats that hold up when hitting dimple balls in the cages. I have composite bats that are 5yrs old (and older) that are used regularly in the cages. The only composite bat I've had issues with has been the Easton Stealth.

 

[jbooth]

Not sure what dimple balls you have thatare soft enough to squeeze, all the ones around here are rock solid. we don't use composites with those.

the softies we use on our manual feed pitching machine are fine though.

I think they are the sting free dimpled balls. They're not soft and squishy, but they do compress, they aren't rock solid like some that I have seen.

 

[coach james]

My 3 dozen new balls are Mc Gregor brand. Optic yellow dimpled cage balls. They were a gift from the sporting goods store rep when I bought the cage. They're about $30 a doz. So I didn't look a gift ball in the dimple...

 

[cblambert1645]

why chance it?

I was told the wheel was not good for the stitching on the ball.

We have some old practice balls with low seams that we put through our JUGS w/o problems...if the good game balls with raised seams are tried they hang in the chute...if they fit, use em...the tire will get ugly no matter what you run through it. The softie JUGs balls are heavier & likely compress more and hang on the barrel rather than jumping off as designed. Id see this especially being an issue on multi layer bats. That said our best hitters are hitting XENOs & LXTs and regularly hit the JUGS dimpled balls at practice- I cringe every time...those bats are getting so hot after a season or two- why chance ruining the bat? I bought a Dimarini bat used off ebay with DX1 alloy for practice- less sting & good solid performance in practice and very durable. Cheap walmart worths dent & bend of machine practice. just my $.02

 

[JAD]

Hitting anything other than regulation softballs technically voids the warranty, therefore I would recommend using last years bat when hitting machine balls, heavy balls, ect. If buying a new $300 bat is not a big deal, then hit away. I would also like to point out that today's bats are pretty much as hot as they are going to get right out of the wrapper, so there is no advantage to hitting cage balls with them to make them hotter.