Batting cage question

[mjl]

There's a batting cage near my office now and I went to hit there today. It only throws straight balls but it varies location.

The pitching machine is approximately 39 feet from the plate and I timed a bunch of pitches and repeatedly got between .49 and .53 seconds between the sound of hearing the pitch deliver and the sound of the bat striking the ball. Granted both of my calculations are inexact, but that puts the pitch at 52mph. A 52mph pitch from 39 feet is in the air for the same amount of time as an 81mph pitch from 60 feet 6 inches, but my instinct is that the pitches in the cage were pretty hittable and I'd be surprised if I could do anything with an 80mph pitch at full distance.

Is there a better way to think about this? I have considered that maybe the interesting calculation is time from pitch to when I have to start my swing, but I'm not sure if I'm actually adjusting my swing to where the ball is as I swing or if I've already decided where to put the bat at the beginning of the swing.

[Kevin Seitzer]

Well, first of all, if the pitching rubber is at 60.5 feet from the point of home plate, a pitcher pitching from that rubber is going to release the ball around 54 or 55 feet from the point of home plate. I'm not sure when you say that the "pitching machine is approximately 39 feet from the plate" if you mean from the point of the plate or from the front of the plate. But assuming that you mean from the point of the plate, then 52 mph at 39 feet equates to about 74 mph from 54.5 feet.