It took the Internet, though, to really crank up the information pitching machine.

FORBES: Learning to Ignore the 'News'

On any given weeknight, there might be young boys practicing with cones and tennis balls, or teenagers from the Rising Stars team bowling to each other and fine-tuning their swings with a pitching machine.

WSJ: A Cricket Paradise in Jersey

New York 1B Mark Teixeira (wrist) hit several long homers on curveballs off a pitching machine at the Yankees' minor league complex in Tampa, Fla. 3B Alex Rodriguez, coming back from hip surgery in January, is hitting off a tee and swinging at soft toss flips in a batting cage as he wraps up his second week of baseball activities.

WSJ: Pettitte hurt's back as Mariners beat Yankees 3-2

This involves pitching the machine's nose up to reduce its forward velocity and increase the speed of rotation of the blades (and thus the amount of lift they provide) to soften the landing.

ECONOMIST: Monitor

Back in 2000, Ford teamed up with Maytag, pitching a minivan complete with a washing machine and microwave.

CNN: Honda's pitch: She's pretty in pink

Jasper is making up for the revenue shortfall by pitching his audio technologies to new customers, winning a place for it in both the hot Xbox 360 game machine and as an option in all new Volvo models, which will offer home-theater-quality Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound.

FORBES: Seeing in Dolby