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Tuesday, May. 06, 2008

Protecting young arms

By Rene Ferran, Herald staff writer

As we reach the postseason in high school baseball, the pressure to win ratchets up seemingly tenfold on everyone -- players, coaches, fans.

This story by Tom Wyrwich in the Seattle Times last week caught my eye, because it talks about the dangers of young pitchers throwing too many pitches in too many games.

A sidebar to the story points out the WIAA rule and its limitations, and the resistance to adding a pitch-count component to the rule.

I can certainly understand the logistical nightmares there would be of having the WIAA (or some other group) tracking the pitching eligibility of thousands of pitchers at hundreds of high schools, and who would keep the official pitch counts and determine who can pitch when.

Perhaps the pitch-count component could come into play in the postseason only, when there are fewer teams and more officials capable of policing it.

I’d love to hear some of your ideas.

Til next time ...