The only pitches I ever threw were brochures that landed on the desk of potential clients. They needed convincing that my proposals were, indeed, as good as I thought they were. In other words, my expertise about the other kind of pitching — the kind baseball players do to earn millions of dollars— would be as valid as, well, a spitball.
So, about baseball’s pitching dilemma…after an appropriate flashback.
In the good ol’ days, many of them old but not good, pitchers threw fastballs, curves and change-ups until batters hit too many of them, or until their arms fell off (not literally). They expected to finish the game they started, unless the offence needed a pinch-hitter to tie or win a game. They pitched every fourth game, the good ones 30 or more times a year, often finishing what they started. Few missed their turns. Fewer hurt enough to be on the disabled list. Fewer still missed a season.
Their careers were sometimes 20 seasons or more. They pitched as many as 300 innings a season, with 20 or more complete games. They’d never heard of Tommy John surgery, because Tommy John was one of them until HE needed the surgery that would bear his name. My recollection is pitching staffs had eight pitchers, nine tops.
Of course these are generalizations. Of course, with fewer players and fewer teams, the numbers were smaller. And of course, there’s that whole expertise thing.
However, MLB’s currently researching more pitching changes, and not the kind the manager makes as he takes the ball from a struggling starter. Baseball is considering legislating that starters must stick around for six innings.
The official explanation: “We are interested in increasing the amount of action in the game, restoring the prominence of the starting pitcher and reducing the prevalence of pitching injuries.”
Everybody likes the first part. Traditionalists endorse the second. The third might require a medical degree to validate, because if you force pitchers to throw longer, it’s reasonable there will be more sore arms, right?
It’s a dilemma caused by too many pitchers (13 on most staffs), managers who change them like wet diapers, the fear of overworking players in whom owners have billion-dollar investments, and an obsession with throwing 100 miles an hour.
Four-day pitching rotations? Most starters work every sixth day and managers have games called “openers” that can involve everybody in the bullpen, an inning at a time.
Changing pitchers? You’ll find up to nine pitchers…not on a roster, but in one game. Starters leave after reaching a pitch count, not because they’re ineffective.
Owners and money ball? The theory is that throwing so hard so often means more injuries, more down time, more wasted salaries.
The 100-mph club? Aroldis Chapman has topped 105 nine times, the current standard of speed.
In that distant past, Bob Feller was first to top 100 mph and he did it often for 18 seasons, in one pitching 371 innings. Half his starts were complete games — currently, three makes a good season. In that distant past, it wasn’t so much about being fast as it was being smart.
Today, it’s still “pitching” not “throwing.” Maybe that’s the pitching dilemma’s answer.
