Possibly the single most difficult challenge in sports, one that leads many to call Tiger Woods the world's greatest athlete — greater than any basketball, baseball, football, tennis or soccer player, greater than Lance Armstrong (who, in seven consecutive years, won a race equivalent to running a marathon every day for three weeks) — entails hitting a stationary ball, standing and watching it fly, and then walking (or riding in a cart) to repeat the process. When St. Louisans seek to perfect this maddeningly difficult and exhausting challenge, many head to Tower Tee, where they can play eighteen holes, drive some balls, or attempt to putt a pink ball through the legs of a plastic hippopotamus. And when they're worn out from the intense effort, local duffers have the option to relax by participating in a considerably less-difficult pastime: trying to hit a 90 mph fastball. Because here, smack in the middle of this golf-hater's nightmare, stands a veritable Batting Cage Wonderland, featuring eleven (eleven!) cages. Softball players can avail themselves of a high, medium or low arc; and just last winter Tower Tee installed two new cages that offer fast-pitch softball at 40 or 55 mph. Baseball devotees may choose speeds ranging from 30 to 80 mph. If that ain't enough, on Wednesdays brave souls can subject themselves to the supreme test, when the 80 mph cage is steroided up to a big leagues-like 90. One dollar buys you fourteen pitches (tokens are available in bulk at a generous discount). During spring, summer and fall, the cages are open from 10 a.m. till 10 p.m. every weekday and from 9 a.m. till 10 p.m. on weekends.