An automatic game ball throwing machine. The ball thrower includes a base, a support frame attached to the base, a drive wheel mechanism attached to the support frame, and a human-machine interface which enables customization of ball spin, speed and target location. A light source can be attached to the machine to illuminate each ball at one or more launch points. Further, a launching frame indexing element can be positioned to control the location of the ball target. A resident software program integrates the throwing machine, indexing element and human-machine interface, calculating pitch parameters and converting them to machine outputs to enable customization of pitch variety and characteristics.