another
generation
of young
ballplayers
will perfect
their swings at
NORTH PARK’S
batting cages.
By Melissa Rayworth
Y
ou’ll catch a glimpse of them when you drive through North
Park this spring and summer; young kids who swing bats
while dreaming about crushing baseballs the way Pedro
Alvarez and Andrew McCutchen do down at PNC Park.
They have come to the North Park Batting Range determined to
improve their skills. Some come to the batting cages on Saturday
mornings to warm up before games. Others arrive after a game
(and perhaps after a post-game ice cream cone), determined to
take their swing to the next level and be ready for their team’s next
outing. Many arrive with the latest in technology with carefully
engineered aluminum bats, professional-grade helmets, cleats and even
compression t-shirts that supposedly can improve the workings of their
fledgling muscles. But they are all part of a long tradition that stretches
back to the days of worn leather gloves and baggy baseball pants.
You can feel it in the summer air, as palpable as the scent of freshly
cut grass and the sound of baseballs cracking off bats. The North
Park Batting Range opened in 1952, back when kids in the North
Hills wanted to hit homeruns like Ralph Kiner. Three years later, as
a 20-year-old rookie player named Roberto Clemente began making
a name for himself in Pittsburgh, these batting cages had already
become a community favorite. And through the powerhouse years of
the Pirates and the leaner years alike, they have endured as a simple
pleasure and a great local resource for baseball lovers of all ages.
It’s March as we work on this issue of our magazine. On too many
days, there’s still a layer of frost blanketing the ground. But on the few
warm days we’ve been lucky enough to enjoy, the pitching machines
at the North Park Batting Range have been fired up and readied
for another season of local
baseball. Although the facility
has been continuously updated
over the decades, there’s still a
wonderfully low-tech beauty
to the place.
The system is simple. You purchase a handful of tokens (one token
buys you 10 pitches) and then choose the right batting cage for your
ability (or your child’s ability). The 10 baseball cages range from 30
MPH pitches all the way up to 80 MPH. So kids can build up their
speeds on repeated visits. Younger siblings can practice in the slower
cages while older siblings try the more challenging speeds.
There are also five softball batting cages. Four offer slow-pitch, while
one is set for 50 MPH fast-pitch softball. If you’d rather not pay per
pitch, cages can also be rented for 15-minute or 30-minute intervals.
Helmets and bats are available for borrowing, but most kids and
grown-ups bring their own.
On sunny Saturdays