An industry leader takes a strong ethical stand for the right thing -- a genuine rarity. Yet, here in the waning days of Bud Selig’s tenure as Commissioner of Major League Baseball, he and Joe Torre debut the “Pitch Smart” guidelines, described by Torre as, “the most extensive and unified endeavor on the issue of arm safety and reducing the incidence rates of Tommy John surgery.”
Baseball gets smart -- Pitch Smart
With its new Pitch Smart guidelines, Major League Baseball is finally getting serious about helping to end pitcher abuse where it start -- with the young. It’s great when self-interest aligns with the good.
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.@MLB, @USABaseball launch @mlbpitchsmart program: http://t.co/qHLkzOPTbW pic.twitter.com/MHJezUb4MR
— MLB (@MLB) November 12, 2014 The program, which emphasizes the importance of limiting the number of pitches thrown by young arms, is designed to reduce injuries and eliminate the abuse of children by youth coaches more interested in winning games and tournaments than protecting an arm. That's a strong word, "abuse," but it's used pointedly. In 2010, Orioles prospect Dylan Bundy threw 181 pitches in a high school game. In May, one high school coach allowed his starting pitcher to throw 194 pitches across 14 innings. While it's important to note that these cases are not the norm, they also aren't huge outliers. Every year, young pitchers around the country are exploited every year by their coaches, who are more focused on keeping their jobs through winning than by protecting the boys and girls in their charge.
The guidelines themselves shouldn’t be onerous for any but the most recalcitrant coaches, setting entirely reasonable daily limits for pitchers and laying out recommended days off based on how much they throw:
It’s also important to note that MLB is not laying the entire problem at the feet of amateur coaches, pointing out, “Ultimately, it is the responsibility of the parent and the athlete to ensure that the player follows the guidelines for his age group over the course of a year -- given that he will oftentimes play in multiple leagues with different affiliations covering different times of the year.” Communication between all three groups is the key to the success of this program.
There will be significant blowback from tough guys who want to reminisce about how many pitches they threw back in little league, Babe Ruth, and high school ball, as well as from iron men of previous generations who beat the odds and succeeded in the majors for years without injury. How dare these coddling eggheads tell coaches how they should be raising the next generation of Mike Sirotkas, Bill Pulsiphers, and Ben McDonalds. It will all be utter bullshit. It’s the ranting of has-beens and never-weres who live in and romanticize the past, and who conveniently forget about all the uncelebrated young pitchers whose careers were ended by injuries along the way.
On the other side is science and a committee of the class of the sports medicine community. That committee, put together by Major League Baseball, included nine physicians and surgeons and two physical trainers. One of the surgeons, Dr. James Andrews, as the leading performer of Tommy John surgeries alive, has less incentive to push for this change than anyone, as it will hopefully reduce the need for his talents, and those of his colleagues. Yet here he is stumping for the elbows of future generations.
Kerry Wood, just one of many pitchers to suffer from overuse at an early age (Allan Henry-USA TODAY Sports).
Put aside that Major League Baseball may be taking a leadership role in the effort to reduce the number of Tommy John surgeries for less than altruistic reasons. A reduction in elbow surgeries will keep baseball’s best pitchers on the mound, which benefits the league and fans alike, the former financially and the latter in getting to see (say) more Patrick Corbin and less Randall Delgado. It’s not often that the right thing and the cost-effective thing are one and the same.
That, of course, is the real reason we are seeing movement on this issue now from MLB. No one wins when Roy Halladay and Brandon Webb retire earlier than they might otherwise have had to, or the Corbins, Matt Harveys, and Jose Fernandezes aren't on the field. Whether their motives ultimately spring from greed or altruism, it's hard to argue with that. Watching a Clayton Kershaw spin a no-hitter is the height of entertaining baseball. Surgeries and rehab assignments and reduced velocity and comeback attempts rank somewhere far down the scale.
Any fan of the game would probably feel the same way. Not that all amateur coaches are fans of the game as much as they’re fans of self-interest. It is to be hoped they can set aside the latter, embrace the former, and tommy-get behind not making young kids throw until their arm falls off and they need a ligament replaced to play catch with their own kids decades down the line.
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