More on Little League Baseball and pitch counts

Few people (as in none that I know of) follow the politics of Little League Baseball pitching rules as closely as Steve Kallas.

Over the years, Steve has been a persistent critic of LLB for failing to protect kids from too many pitches, curve balls and alike. He has kept an especially close eye on policies, in effect starting in 2007, regarding pitch counts.

The rules have been modified since, including changes in 2009. But Steve still sees room for improvement. In this recent blog post, he makes many good points but the best one is this: Why not let orthopedic surgeons and researchers decide the issue? In other words, the people who understand the physical limits of 12-year-old elbows and shoulders? To be fair, Little League has looked to such experts and has adjusted its rules based on their advice. But why not err on the side of safety?

The reporting for Until It Hurts underscored this for me. Surgeons are seeing overpitched kids in their offices every day. They understand the problem far better than the most well-intentioned coach, parent, private tutor and Little League administrator.