docb said:
It is a product of playing baseball year round and way too many games. I know a lot will disagree because they think their kids have to do this to play in college, etc. But when we were young (40 years ago) almost no one had ever heard of little league elbow. We did it to ourselves.
LIke Tarpon said that's part of it. But a couple of other thoughts
1. There is no safe way to play three games in one day with two breaks. Thats 15-18 innings over 10 hours with two complete cool downs. Yet we(generically speaking) set brackets up that way for some teams. It should never happen and one reason we avoid tournaments with more than 8 teams when possible. It is also why we play in a 16 game four weekend league with only two games a day.
2. Ignorance. A lot of parents and some coaches simply are not aware of the risk and because of that want their son playing every or just about every inning. That is a big mistake. We limit our boys innings, depending on the kid and how much he pitches. Because we carry 13 now on 13u we will be able to sit kids for entire games when needed. I will not allow my son to play in more than three games in a weekend. True about a lot of our boys.
3. Playing in the field after pitching. If a kid throws more than maybe 35 pitches or two innings he should be done for the day. If absolutely necessary he could maybe finish that game at a different position and sit out the next. But we routinely see kids throw more than that and go play SS or CF. That is insane.
4. Pitching sore- See above. But rarely should a kid pitch back to back days and should never pitch twice in one day.
5. Bad priorities- that speaks for itself and needs no further discussion or it will attract the wrong kind of conversation.
6. Multiple sports. Two major overuse injuries I am aware of from last season happened because the kid played something else in the morning and pitched that night. One played basketball in the morning and pitched and missed nine months with a back(he was just cleared 12/01 to play sports and is doing great in basketball) and another who threw shotput in the morning, pitched that night, and fractured a growth plate in his shoulder. He played football but is still struggling to throw a baseball.
Trust me. It is all fun and games until it happens to your own son. I hope at least someone reads this and does the right thing for either their son or their team.
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