Posted by: mike28nc (mikelamb68@hotmail.com) on Mon Apr 17 21:45:48 2006

That was some intersting reading.

I have some thoughts on this.

1. No kid should be pitching at 46' unless your 9u. (Need to go to AAU type of rules for pitching and base path).

2. It is part of the game. You have to learn how to take a ball and the chest. Most kids in rec ball have never learned how to turn away from the pitch. If that is the case then, yes they are going to get hurt. Just last week, my son was pitching to 12u team (his team is 11u) and had the kid at the plate 0-2. He threw high inside over the plate and the kid did a check swing that caught him on the back elbow. The ball was over the plate, but the kid was crowing the plate. No harm, kid take the base. Now the kid has broken elbow in two places. Not the pitchers fault, ball over the plate just up in the zone to induse a swing. Kid didnt make the correct move to stay away.

I think the rec programs should go to a different field lenths to help with this.
9u 46' pitching 60' basepath
10u 50' pitching 65' basepath
11u 53' pitching 70' basepath
12u 53' pitching 75' basepath

then kids that are thowing at mid 60's at 11-12 the bater will have time to get out of the way.
Oh, and get rid of the -12 bats. Only -8.