
DATE: Sunday, September 28, 1997            TAG: 9709260419

SECTION: CAROLINA COAST          PAGE: 08   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: FUN IN THE SUN 

SOURCE: BY DAVE MCCARTER, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: KILL DEVIL HILLS                  LENGTH:  102 lines

BATTING CAGES MAKE A HIT WITH AMATEUR PLAYERS

THE PLAYERS AT the major league level may be known as the Boys of Summer. But there is a strange and special chemistry that comes with experiencing baseball in autumn.

Like the leaves on a grand old oak tree, the game gains in color and intensity in the fall. Indeed, it is at its most beautiful just before it's all over for another year.

The pennant races bring a new immediacy to each game in September and early October. The hopes of a long, hard season all boil down to a couple of weeks of competition. The records of old-time legends are chased. And the crafty veterans and mercurial young stars alike don long sleeves and turtlenecks to deal with the returning crispness in the autumn air.

A great place to rekindle baseball's soggy, strike-soaked torch within yourself or to instill a new appreciation for the game in the younger set is at the batting cages at Diamond Shoals Family Fun Park, on the bypass right at the Nags Head/Kill Devil Hills town line.

The can't-miss-it complex has two lush, real-grass miniature golf courses that are most visible from the road, beneath a towering network of twisting, turning water slides. The batting cages are around back, near a large parking area and a swell sandy play spot for the little ones.

Appropriately on the Sunday we visited (the eve of the first day of autumn), a cold front had arrived the night before and blunted the muggy heat that has hung around the Outer Banks throughout September. For the first time this season, it actually felt like fall was on the rise.

Cindy was running the show at the ticket-token area at Diamond Shoals and explained that each token for the batting machines was good for 20 pitches, with the balls zipping out at six- or seven-second intervals. Individual tokens cost $2.50. But we went for the bargain deal of five tokens for $10.

We headed toward the cages along one of the concrete walking paths that crisscross the facility - past an outdoor cabana for summer frivolity, a couple of empty paddle boats and a game room with lots of quarter-gulping video machines.

After taking note of one of the more self-evident tips of the cap to liability insurers that you'll ever see - a sign reading, ``Do Not Stand on Home Plate'' - we were faced with choices, choices, choices.

First, the mandatory batting helmet, which, you'll remember from Little League, it is impossible to wear without looking like a total dork. Diamond Shoals has them with or without face masks. As for bats, there were about a half-dozen adult-size war clubs (all aluminum) sort of unceremoniously tangled up in a big wooden box. And then the most challenging conundrum of all . . . the thing that sets Diamond Shoals apart: Did we want to hit baseballs or softballs? And how fast did we want them to arrive?

Diamond Shoals has 14 batting stations, separated by mesh nets and cages, and serviced by individual pitching machines fed by two large, ball-collecting units. There are cages that offer slow-pitched softballs, fast-pitched softballs and baseballs spit out at speeds that go up at 10 mph increments. There are 40 mph cages, 50 mph cages, and so on, up to 80 mph.

Our lineup of swingers was a formidable one indeed. Included were Jen, a former slow-pitch standout and current girls' softball coach; Dan, a multi-sport high school standout who was a serious enough athlete to be offered scholarships to play Division I college soccer; and me. The highlight of my brief high school baseball career came when ex-Brave and current Mets pitcher Greg McMichael (a titan of modern bullpen mediocrity) struck me out twice on a total of six pitches, two of which were curve balls that I thought were going to hit me.

They say the most valuable players on any team are those who know their limitations. Hence, we started with the 40 mph baseball cages. We made pretty good contact. But the netting that hangs down over the front of each of the hard-ball cages was frustrating - it kept all of our fly balls from leaving the cage area. It's probably necessary to keep the Griffey Jr. types from launching rockets into the water slides.

The most amazing thing about the experience is that a very mediocre major-league fastball is more than twice as fast as what we were hitting. We didn't try to go much faster, instead accompanying our softball star to the slow-pitch cages (she had by far the best swings of the day).

Grady Hebert, a visitor from Richmond, Va., who was at the cages with his wife, Sarah, got up to 60 mph - and was duly frustrated. He punctuated his whiffs with ``Geez, that one would have really gone!''

In the slow-pitch cages, the hard-rubber balls are shot out of a howitzer-type gun that gives each pitch a good high arc. Unlike the baseball cages, there are no pesky nets to keep you from swatting the softballs out onto the grassy knoll behind the pitching machines. You even get to aim at an archery-type target if accuracy is more your bag.

Another thing to remember is that it's all a pretty quick thrill. At a pitch every six seconds, you'll go through your 20 in about three minutes. Be sure to take time between your sessions in the cages to catch your breath, grab a soda and talk about the ones you just missed and the time in Little League when you cleared the bases with a grounder that went through everyone's legs. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by DAVE McCARTER

Sarah Herbert of Richmond steps up to the plate at a slow-pitch

softball cage at Diamond Shoals Family Fun Park in Kill Devil Hills.

Graphic

HOW TO HIT 'EM

What: Batting cages

Where: Diamond Shoals Family Fun Park, milepost 9 on the bypass

in Kill Devil Hills

When: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily through November

Cost: $2.50 for 20 pitches or $10 for 100 pitches

Call: 480-3553