Apparatus for shooting a curve ball

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DISCLOSURE The apparatus of this invention is described hereinafter in detail in conjunction with the attached drawings.
FIG.
1 shows a baseball practicing machine 2 which is provided with an apparatus of this invention.
The machine 2 is located at a suitable distance from a back fence 3 in front of which a batter A stands.
The machine 2 substantially comprises a casing 4 which encases an air blower 6, a flexible hose 8 which has the proximal end connected to the air blower 6 and the distal end formed into a loop 10 with a shooting mouth 8a thereof directed toward the batter A, a ball feeding device 12 which intermittently feeds balls 5 into the flexible hose 8 and an apparatus 14 for shooting a curve ball of this invention which can rotatably, tiltably, elevatably support the loop 10 of the flexible hose 8.
In the above construction, the ball feeding device 12 comprises a ball storing tank 16 mounted on the casing 4, a ball feeder pipe 18 which connects the ball storing tank 16 with the flexible hose 8 and an intermittent feeder mechanism 20 mounted on the middle portion of the ball feeder pipe 18.
The intermittent feeder mechanism 20 is shown in FIGS.
2 to 3c in detail, wherein the mechanism 20 comprises a motor 22 mounted on the ball feeder pipe 18, a pair of spaced-apart semi-circular plates 24, 25 which are fixedly mounted on a drive shaft 22a of the motor 22 at a distance slightly bigger than the diameter of the ball 5 in radially opposed directions, and a pair of spaced-apart grooves 26, 27 formed on the ball feeder pipe 18 at locations corresponding to the semi-circular plates 24, 25 for receiving these plates 24, 25 alternately upon rotation of the motor 22.
The construction of the apparatus 14 for shooting a curve ball of this invention is shown in FIG.
4 to FIG.
6.
In FIG.
4, a loop holder 30 comprises a large circular ring 32 and a pair of small circular rings 34 disposed within and welded to the large circular ring 32 in the shape of a figure 8.
The shooting end portion of the flexible hose 8 is inserted into the circular openings 34a of the small circular rings 34 such that the small circular rings 34 stably support the end of the flexible hose 8 in a loop shape with a straight portion 8b leading to the mouth 8a directed to the batter A