Pitching House and Tournaments

Neill,

I am only 32 (today, in fact), and baseball was king in my neighborhood growing up also. We too, knew nothing of pitching limits. In fact, every day (regardless of rain) we'd be at the baseball field by 6:30am (right after our paper routes) to play ball until the big kids kicked us off the fields at 9:00 or so. At that point, we retired to Casey's house for non-stop wiffle ball until 8:30 or so.

With all that work, we all had much more developed arms. All of us could pitch all afternoon because we did it every day for the 3 months of summer. During the winter, we weren't pitching, but I remember an awful lot of snowball fights. (Jeez, imagine the outcry of recommending snowball fights as an off-season conditioning regimen!)

Look at the ace of your staff. If he has good mechanics, which he probably does it he is the ace, is he as effective in the 6th as he is in the 1st or 2nd? Not an awful lot of guys can say yes to that question anymore. I don't even see many pitchers who can TRULY go the distance in All-Star teams.

Now think back when you played. How often was a relief pitcher used in one of your games unless there was an injury or a substitution for a better bat?

Finally, as adults, we are expected to be the responsible ones. The idea of a "standard" pitching limit is that it is based around the lowest common denominator. You want it that way. If it's too high, there are kids who could potentially get hurt out there. Sure, limits are more of a penalty than a protection to your workhorses, but the guidelines are designed to protect the ponies as well.