Noodle Arms

At the end of every summer America’s attention turns to a small central Pennsylvania town. Williamsport goes from being blue collar working man’s town, to a sea of youth. The Little League World Series has exploded since ESPN started to put the tournament games on national TV. And the kids (12 and 13 year olds) get to soak up life as a rock star for a few weeks before they head back to school. Everyone seems to love the Little League World series, everybody, it seems, except me.

There are number of minor reasons, and one major reason why I cannot stand the LLWS. Some minor issues I have:1) the fences are like 215 feet the whole way around the outfield, and with some 13 year olds today approaching six feet in height, pop outs turn into home runs. 2) The replays. I have always been, and always will be vigorously against replay in baseball. At the LLWS coaches get 2 replays per game! Obviously I want the umpire, at any level, to get the call right, but the best part about baseball is that no umpire is the same. 3) ESPN. I remember when you used to get the US Final and then the World Series Championship game. Now we get regional games before these teams even make it to Williamsport. It’s getting watered down. It’s fun to see maybe one or two little league games on TV. It’s boring to watch 35 of them.

My number one gripe about the LLWS isn’t necessarily something the LLWS does wrong. Nor is it anything ESPN does wrong. The onus of my major gripe lies strictly with the parents and coaches, and sometimes parents who are coaches. And, the problem is that these coaches, and parents, really have no clue what they are doing to their kids. And it is all because they want to be on TV wining the LLWS.

Recent studies have shown that youth injuries related to pitching have been on a steady incline, and as Dr. David Geier indicates, there are number of factors.  The notion of specializing in one sport at a young age may seem logical to some parents, but the fact is that the youth body is developing up usually until the child reaches the age of 18, and just learning to do one thing means that a kids’ body is missing out on developing in other areas. Also, specializing in only one area means added stress to the same part of the body. Take pitching for instance. The kid who plays summer baseball and pitches, and then plays fall football, and basketball in the winter, then baseball again is stressing a multitude of different parts of his body over the course of the year. The other example is the kid that plays baseball in spring and summer, and takes pitching lessons in the fall and winter. Now this kid may be getting a lot better than everyone else at pitching, but he’s also stressing his arm for the whole year.

Maybe the most disgusting part of the LLWS, to me, is the fact that these kids (and let’s be honest they are still kids) are throwing curveballs! Throwing a curveball should be the last pitch a kid ever learns, and it shouldn’t happen until the kids is at least 16, probably later. Yet, I sit and watch these 13 year olds throw curveball after curveball after curveball trying to get hitters out. And the sad part is, the coach is calling for it from the dugout. A 13 year-olds arm is far from developed, and the tendons in his/her elbow are still very fragile. So it boggles my mind that parents would let their kids go out and snap off breaking balls and jeopardize their long-term career for a shot at a 12/13 year-old championship!

Even more appalling are then numbers Dr. Geier provides about the misconceptions of Tommy John Surgery amongst players, coaches, andparents. Only 31% of coaches, 28% of players, and 25% of parents believe that pitch type plays a factor in the increase in chance of torn ligaments in the elbow. Today there is a growing notion amid parents and players that if they get hurt they can have surgery and come back better than before, not realizing the severity of this type of injury. The recovery period for a Tommy John injury is 12-18 months. While nearly a third of parents, coaches, and players felt like 9 months was enough time to come back from a Tommy John surgery. Big deal, coach, you won the Little League World Series, too bad your players wont be able to throw by the time they get to high school. Looking at the list of names, there have only been about 40 LLWS players that went on to actually make it into the big leagues, and majority of those that did, were position players.

The LLWS does have pitch count limits, and rules enforcing days off for pitchers, but if it really wanted to look out for our future players it would have rules outlawing curveballs.