Batting Practice
From the calculator of Allen Lee (hohohee@hotmail.com)
September 30, 1999

This is not a real baseball game.  This is more of a batting game to prepare you for one of the baseball games available for the TI-83.  In it, you will face the heater of Randy Johnson, the forkball of Randy Jones, the deadly changeup-fastball combination of Pedro Martinez, and the fat pitches of a certain 9th grader.

HOW TO START

Run BATTING from the program menu.  Watch the cheap animation, and when it's done, press any key.
Choose a pitcher.

HITTING

You will see the drawing of a player wearing #19 on his jersey.  You can think of this guy as being you (or Tony Gwynn/Ted Williams batting right-handed.)  The pitch will come at you from the left side of the screen.
Don't do anything if the pitch is not in the "strike zone" (i.e., somewhere above the belt.)
If it is somewhere close to the zone, press any key to make the bat swing. (NOTE: This is written in BASIC so the bat will take a milisecond to move.  Remember this when you're pitted against the Big Unit.)
The screen will show you whether you missed or hit the ball and how fast the pitch went (the radar gun isn't too accurate).  It will also show some number below the velocity of the pitch.  This is your "batting average" (sort of).  Each pitch that you swing and miss at plus the number of strikes that you take plus the number of hit you get count as an at-bat, and each time you make contact is a hit.  The number of hits you get divided by the number at-bats is your average.

PITCHERS

The 4 different pitchers have different styles of pitching.  Randy Johnson throws blazing fastballs and nothing else.  Pedro Martinez will also throw heat but mixes in some changeups, also (some which are slow and fat).  Randy Jones is an offspeed pitcher, but his pitches dance around and are also hard to hit.  Allen Lee (the author of this program) will throw a variety of pitches, most of which are exetremely hittable.

THINGS TO REMEMBER
* Allen Lee is the easiest pitcher to hit for obvious reasons.
* The radar gun isn't too accurate.
* Some pitches are literally unhittable.
* When you face Randy Johnson, you'll often find yourself taking some pretty feeble swings.
* Pedro Martinez has been known to throw a fat changup or two...
* This program can be modified for two reasons:
	1) Everyone has their own idea of a strike zone and they can modify as they please.
	2) Maybe someone can take this batting engine and turn it to an actual baseball game of some form.  If you want to, please email me.
 
Send any commments you have to the following address...
hohohee@hotmail.com