Making Use Of Home Batting Cages

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KISSIMMEE FL - JANUARY 28: An instructor who is playing the role of a team manager from a simulated baseball game of balls and strikes in the indoor batting cages yells at a student umpire during the Jim Evans Academy of Professional Umpiring on January 28 2011 at the Houston Astros Spring Training Complex in Kissimmee Florida. Jim Evans was a Major League Umpire for 28 years that included umpiring four World Series. Many of his students have gone on to work on all levels of baseball including the Major Leagues. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)

More and more baseball players have been installing personal batting cages. How do they use their personal batting cages? We investigate.

Jan 26, 2012 - Prince Fielder just got himself a contract that will guarantee him $214 million. Written out as words, that is two hundred fourteen million dollars. Wow! That is a lot of money! I guess you could argue that Scott Boras got Prince Fielder that contract, and nothing is actually official until Fielder passes a physical*, but the point remains.

* and what a fun physical that will be to perform

The point is that baseball players are getting a lot more money than they used to. It's not a bad thing. It's just the truth, for a bunch of reasons. And because baseball players are getting a lot more money than they used to, they're increasingly able to purchase certain luxuries for themselves. Alex Rodriguez bought an airplane. Derek Jeter bought spectacular waterfront property. And a number of players have installed home batting cages. The ability to practice batting, at home!

It's a growing trend, or at least it seems to be a growing trend. Some of these batting cages are used for the purpose of practicing batting. Some of them are used for other purposes. Below, we will examine how a handful of active or recently active players make or made use of the cages they built. We're taking you inside! Let's get to the names!

Andruw Jones
(source)

Jones used to be very diligent about getting in his work in the cage. Hitting for 30 minutes used to be as much a part of his morning as orange juice and oatmeal. Unless he had a game, Jones never took a morning off, and even in that event he'd get his cuts in the evening. Then one day he was like "aw f*** it" and stopped. Jones currently uses his batting cage to store boxes containing smaller boxes.

Wes Helms
(source)

Helms uses his personal batting cage almost every day. Fully stocked, his pitching machine will run uninterrupted for 45 minutes. Helms will turn it on and sit outside of the cage for 35 minutes. At that point he will get up, enter the cage, and take three swings. Then he leaves the cage and sits down again until the machine is out of balls.

Bobby Crosby
(source)

Crosby had a batting cage in his backyard. He would set the pitching machine to throw nothing but straight 80 mile-per-hour fastballs. He would hit for 20 minutes, and between each swing, he would silently wish that real pitchers were more like his fake pitcher he programmed to be terrible.

Walt Weiss
(source)

Weiss doesn't use a cage anymore, since he's long retired, but back in the day he would go in there for an hour and bunt. Just bunt. He'd bunt everything. Sometimes he would show bunt and pull back.

Scott Spiezio
(source)

Spiezio purchased a backyard batting cage, gutted it, and installed a drum kit and a bunch of amps and guitars. He would then use it to practice his uniquely and particularly terrible brand of kitchen pan metal. Neighbors complained about the noise since the batting cage wasn't a soundroom and was instead an open area tented with mesh.

Jon Lieber
(source)

Lieber would stand beside the pitching machine and examine how the machine was able to throw each ball with such consistent velocity and location. Lieber would then attempt to imitate the machine, which wouldn't go very well since the machine was a box and not in any way built in the human form.

Reggie Willits
(source)

Willits has a batting cage in close proximity to the family bed. He stocks the pitching machine with 500 baseballs, turns it on, stands in the batter's box, and watches every pitch go by. He does not swing, or attempt to swing. After he gets into his stance, the only motion is the swift swivel of his head as he watches each ball. After the machine is out of balls, Willits turns it off and leaves.

Eric Chavez
(source)

Chavez had grand plans when he installed a personal batting cage, but every time he tries to load the pitching machine with baseballs and turn it on he gets himself caught in the gears and a friend has to come rescue him and drive him to the hospital.

Adrian Beltre
(source)

Beltre originally bought and installed a batting cage to help him with his biggest offensive shortcoming, which is swinging at too many low-away sliders. Beltre sets the pitching machine to only throw low-away sliders, and then intends to stand in the batter's box and watch them to learn what they look like. Then he just ends up swinging at all the low-away sliders.

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Jeff Sullivan

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I started blogging about the Seattle Mariners at Leone For Third in December of 2003, and I joined SBN and founded Lookout Landing in January 2005. I can see outside from my room, which is good... Read full bio

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