Powered moveable batting tee

Abstract

The powered, movable hitting tee made up of a vertical tee, a reciprocating, horizontally-disposed rod supporting the vertical tee, a movable sled or carriage assembly within which the reciprocating rod is mounted, a drive belt or, in the alternative, a chain and sprocket assembly arranged parallel to and in operable contact with the rod, thus engaging the rod and driving the same, a motor for rotating the drive belt or chain, thus to move the sled, rod and vertical tee, and a box enclosure for all the components of the invention, save for a portion of the reciprocating rod and the vertical tee. The rod free-end and the base of the vertical tee are, in a first embodiment, only loosely, frictionally interfitted together so that, should the vertical tee be accidentally struck, then it will simply fall off of the rod, without damage to any of the parts of the invention. The vertical tee may include a rather rigid lower segment and a somewhat flexible upper segment made of memory-retentive material (e.g., rubber), which will bend but not be damaged when struck accidentally by a bat. The upper end of vertical tee upper segment may be flared to support a baseball or softball. In a second embodiment, the tee support includes a coil spring as a shock absorber for misaimed hitting. A removable motor assembly and remote control devices may also be included.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.