The Major League Baseball season is in full swing. The Cubs are winning games with their young crop of players and the White Sox, well we will leave them be. The big story so far is the amount of pitchers that either didn’t take the mound, or won’t take the mound this season due to elbow ligament damage. The surgery that these pitchers undergo is referred to as Tommy John surgery, named after former pitcher Tommy John. He was the first player to ever have the procedure done, and ended up winning over half of his 288 games after surgery. The injury has been around for quite some time, but the rate of pitchers going down has increased to unbearable levels the last couple of years. Some people point at mechanics or lack thereof. Some might even blame the lack of preparation that pitchers seem to get when it comes to conditioning and strength training prior to and during the season. Those are all fine excuses for this baseball epidemic, but the answer isn’t what players aren’t doing now, it’s what they’ve been doing the last 12 years prior to making the show. Travel baseball is the craze with parents and players alike. Before, kids would head down to their local little league diamond and play with and against their buddies all summer in the hopes of winning bragging rights heading into next year’s school year. The game was simple and revolved around fun and friendships. Nowadays, the focus has switched from playing locally to traveling across the region to play in tournaments every weekend. Much like AAU basketball, not everything is all bad when it comes to travel teams and much of that has to do with coaching and organizational leadership. Sounds familiar huh? The big problem with this summer baseball cash cow is the lack of rules in regards to pitchers, along with the lack of teaching the proper fundamentals and mechanics. Everyone knows regardless of the team you play for you will have that one kid that is bigger and throws harder than everyone. Generally, you would want that kid to throw as many innings as possible in order to win championships. The question I ask is, at what cost? The goal for the older divisions is to allow kids to get gain experience and exposure. What good is exposure when these kids’ arm health is being affected so dramatically that many of them won’t have an arm left when they get to high school? Let’s remember the guys we’re seeing on TV going down with injury is a very small sample size. We don’t hear about the kids that didn’t make it due to arm troubles from getting over-worked early. Every generation has their issues with how kids are handled in all sports. Before, kids would play in multiple leagues and even pitch on the same night in both. Unfortunately, while that might tend to lead to success early, it rarely leads to long-term arm health and success in the future. It seems like we are putting the glory of a win at the age of 12 over the potential of a healthy and enjoyable baseball career in the future. To me, I don’t find that fair to the child, and at the end of the day, that’s why we are there, the kids. Now, I’m not sitting here saying that you can’t encourage hard work and dedication to the craft if your son or daughter loves the game. All I’m saying is make sure you’re doing everything you can to ensure that, while they are learning the game, they should be learning fundamentals and mechanics of the right and safe way to play as well. The upcoming months can be a lot of fun at the ballpark. Let’s just hope that the coaches, parents, and organization leaders allow these children to have fun for years to come!
