By Josh:
So already with the title alone I’ve opened up a can of worms that I can’t close. Some of you who read this will stand up and cheer for what I have to say. Others of you will understand where I’m coming from but see things a little differently, and some will tell me I’m wrong and that either nothing is wrong with baseball or that I’m missing what is really wrong. Either way these articles are going to get a response out of you.
Heck I bet some of you read the title and assumed you knew exactly what I’m going to say and have already started thinking about how wrong I am. That’s fine, but I challenge you to read the entire series before you start judging.
I’ve started and stopped similar articles a few times this summer. Not sure why but 2019 has been the year I see more negatives in the game than ever before. Maybe I’m hearing more stories that make me shake my head. Maybe it is because of the games I’m going to or people I am talking to. I don’t know why but here are my thoughts.
Coaches
In 2014 I wrote an article tearing apart a local all-star team coaching staff because they had a 15 year old throw 138 pitches in a game and then throw another 120 with only one day of rest. This didn’t count warm up pitches or the fact that he also played shortstop for the team.
Then just the other day I saw that in a 12U tournament a coach had a player throw 50+ pitches in a game. Then the next day the kid threw 117 pitches in one game and 113 pitches in a 2nd game on the same day. What made this even worse was the tournament was in Cooperstown, you know home of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
It has become way to common to see coaches thinking that getting a win in a kids baseball tournament is more important than taking care of those kids and teaching them not only how to play baseball but how to love the game.
Now let me say there are a lot of great coaches out there. I know high school, summer league and college coaches that protect their players with passion and intensity. I’ve seen players try and convince coaches that they aren’t hurt or don’t care about their pitch count and can keep going. Only to have their coach stop them and sit them down because that was what was best for the player.
Heck I was even at a Cascade Collegiate League game that was supposed to be a double header but they cut a game because they didn’t want to overwork any pitchers when they were already short.
There are lots of great coaches that put their players first, but for the coaches that put themselves and winning first they will be the cause of kids leaving the game. Every player that the game loses because of a bad coach hurts the game.
I don’t know if we need to make sure that every league and tournament has very specific pitch count rules or what. I just know something needs to be fixed, and coaches that put winning a game over a players health and future should be ran out of coaching.