Big Changes in Little League Baseball: Pitchers Now Have Pitch Count

ABC News JOHN BERMAN reported late last night that the Little League Association has placed a new rule only allowing a certain number of pitches for pitchers in Little League.

The prior rule was that there wasn't a rule. From my own experience as a pitcher at a young age we were kept in the game for as long as we were doing well and many times never came out in the six innings we played. The problem was that many injuries would occur that most of the time were related to the arms being over worked. Of course during my era and noticeable still today, pitchers dislike being taken out of the game. Unless they are injured so asking a young boy or girl that is the center of attention on the ball field if their arm hurts or they're tired is pointless when you won't get an honest answer. The rule will also give other children a chance to be a pitcher as well and everyone will have fair amounts of playing time which should let those parents that didn't see their child play much now will be able to have ample playing time.

Berman also spoke with parents on the new rule and some tend to believe that its just another way to baby the players due other issues. Such as when Berman listened to parent Tyrone Bowman who said, "When I first heard that the rule was coming I thought, Uh-oh... here comes another nightmare for Little League."

After not only reading this article on the Internet and also watching the story on the early morning ABC news, there are a lot of things this rule may help with that many people won't understand. One of the biggest problems in sporting events is the jealousy of parents whose children do not get to play as much. While parents are proud of their children you read the horror stories of parents fighting and getting serious injuries even sometimes fatal. With fairness in playing time this could possible cut down on these instances.

Most importantly is the fact that these kids can have long sustaining Little League years full of pitching and fun instead of injury. The rule is setup where anyone under the age of 10 can throw no more than 75 pitches in a game. The other Little League ages also have pitch counts ranging from 85, 95, and 105 pitches. You can watch a replay of the report on ABC.com.

ABC News
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Nightline/Story?id=3322176&page=2