Baseball: Governing body delivers with limit for high school pitchers

It is standard for sports writers to ask a coach following a high school baseball game the won-lost record of his team and his pitcher.

"We're 12-6," a coach told me after a game years ago.

And your pitcher?

"He's 12-6, too," the coach said. "He's got a rubber arm."

Rubber arms increasingly lead to dead arms, an alarm bell noted orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews and others have been ringing for years. A study in the journal Medicine, Science, Sports & Exercise showed that athletes who pitched with a tired arm were six times more likely to suffer from elbow pain and four times more likely to have shoulder pain than those who did not display a tired arm.

"Almost half of sports injuries in adolescents stem from overuse," Andrews said in a article published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "I want to help these kids, given the epidemic of injuries that we're seeing. That's sort of my mission: to keep them on the playing field and out of the operating room. "

People in sports are finally starting to listen to the doctor's message. The National Federation of State High School Associations took action last month by instructing its members, including the Arkansas Activities Association, to adopt a pitch count for high school baseball.

Starting in 2017, a pitcher in a senior high game in Arkansas may not throw more than 110 pitches in a day and a pitcher in a junior varsity game may not throw more than 85 pitches. Pitchers must rest based on the number of pitches he's thrown, including a minimum of three days of rest for someone who throws at least 86 pitches in one day.

Texas and Alabama had already set a limit of 125 pitches while a state like Minnesota, where the high school baseball season is usually shorter because of the weather, established a pitch limit of 105 for the regular season.

"I think the new pitch limits for 2017 are a good thing," Bentonville coach Todd Abbott said. "Actually, it's what we have done here in Bentonville for many years. So, naturally, we are supportive of the move."

Abbott is in a better position than most in Arkansas to critique the new rule. In 12 years as a head coach, he's led Bentonville to three conference championships and a state championship. He also had an extensive playing career as a pitcher in high school, college, and professional baseball, where he reached the Triple-A level with Oakland in 1998.

His father, Glenn Abbott, pitched in the major leagues for 11 years with four teams, including the A's.

"For me, what it really comes down to is not so much the pitch limit but rest in between outings," Todd Abbott said. "It is easy to get caught up in winning a game and not paying attention to the number of pitches thrown in a game. It is an overuse issue. More times than not, pitchers at the high school level begin to lose their effectiveness around the 85-100 pitch count."

Each team will be required to count pitches and the host school must provide a separate pitch recorder. Any violation of the 110-pitch limit must be reported by schools within 24 hours of the game.

"As a pitcher, I wanted the ball regardless of how effective I may have been," Abbott said. "You want to stay out there to help the team. Fortunately, I haven't had coaches who pushed the issue for me to continue to pitch."

No longer will a rogue coach with a "win at all cost" mentality be able to ride the strong, young arm of one talented pitcher. That's good for the game of baseball and good for the young people who play it.

Sports on 08/14/2016

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