USSSA Potentially Culpable in Injuries to Youth Pitchers

from Ron Wolforth, Texas Baseball Ranch and Pitching Central

We all have experienced this phenomenon. We see a clear injustice. It angers us to the core. We have our moment of indignation and outrage. Then when the moment passes we sadly realize nothing is going to change. Things are what they are and those in power don’t care about the wrong. Something else…usually money or they own power or status supersedes doing what’s clearly right. And most often we don’t have the influence or the political clout to hold those feet to the fire that can actually correct or amend the injustice. And we are left angry, frustrated and a little more cynical. You know the old saying…You just can’t fight city hall.

Well ladies and gentleman, sometimes the cosmic tumblers all align and just the right person experiences the injustice at just the right time. Then things can change. You can fight city hall.

• Maybe that person is someone who has a national weekly radio program with a modest regular audience dedicated to the specific topic.
• Maybe that person is an expert in the topic, far exceeding the original policy makers, who has written 4 books on the exact topic. One of them regarded as one of the most important and widely read manual ever written on the topic.
• Maybe that person has held over 50 events in the past 5 years and has interacted with over 1800 young people from every state in the US except North Dakota and Hawaii…including kids from Canada, Venezuela, Chile and Mexico to assist them in that very topic.
• Maybe that person for the past 7 years has hosted the top educational event for professionals in that specific topic every year in the United States and the event has been sold out for the last three years... attracting the top professionals in Athletic Training, physical therapy as well as professional, collegiate and high school coaching
• Maybe that person is an expert in the topic who has as an inner circle of close friends whom are also experts and major influencers that cut wide and deep across the topic…including the ASMI (American Sports Medicine Institute), the publisher of Collegiate Baseball Magazine and professional baseball. 
• Maybe that person is an expert that speaks at national conventions and organizations dedicated to that very topic.
• Maybe that person has a wife who is also very passionate and knowledgeable about the subject and was even more outraged by the policy because it placed her 11 year old son at risk. There may be nothing more intense than a mother protecting her children.
• Maybe…just maybe…that person is ALL the above.

The specific topic?  

The health and durability of the youth pitcher.

The problem:  

The USSSA’s policy of 3 pitches maximum in warm-up between innings at the Elite 32 World Series in Orlando.

That’s right… 3 pitches per inning for warm-up for A 9,10,11,12 AND 13 YEAR OLD ARM!

• Major League pitchers get 8.
• College Pitchers get 8.
• 9-13 year old arms get 3?

Really? I can’t be serious? But I’m afraid the truth is worse than that.  I personally witnessed at the USSSA Elite 32 in Orlando this past week, a pitcher brought into the game from shortstop in the middle of the first inning…and the umpire’s stern direction…you get 3 warm-up pitches. That’s it.

No I’m not joking.

When the umpires were confronted and asked for more pitches…the umpire pushed back with the zeal of a Nazi commandant. When the assistant tournament director was later questioned by me personally about the wisdom of such a stand…a very similar response: How dare we question the rule…the ALL wise ALL knowing USSSA is correct. You are simply whining. Get over it. THAT’S THE POLICY. MOVE ON!

They are clearly not ALL about the kids. If they were all about the kids… such a rule would absolutely never exist. It exists purely to speed up the game, thereby getting more games in, making it easier for tournament officials and umpires to run  and administer the tournament…and ultimately…bring in more revenue into the organization.

I remind the USSSA that they CHOSE to expand the tournament field from 24 to 32…obviously to generate greater revenue. It was THEIR choice. It was also their CHOICE to place kids at risk by a wrong-headed policy implemented simply to speed up the game.

And my stern message to tournament directors Matt Trebuchon and Annette Richards and the higher ups at USSSA…you sir in this regard… have met your match. Know this and please do not doubt my resolve or my influence. You will change the 3 pitch policy to a minimum of 8 warm-up pitches for a young man’s first appearance in game and a minimum of 5 after that by next season or the USSSA will mark the Elite 32 as a day they were introduced to a man who they will get to know very well for the foreseeable future and who will be a burr in their saddle.

The USSSA would be wise to get out in front of this and simply do the right thing…and really be ‘ALL about the kids’…or you will be continually surprised by the ways and direction from which I and my supporters will hold the USSSA accountable for injuries to youth pitchers which occur in USSSA sanctioned events while this policy is in place. It will most certainly be a road the USSSA will not want to travel.

I’m sure everyone involved would agree that the USSSA or any other like organization should constantly be looking for ways to reduce injuries and not making policy that instead places young arms at unnecessary risk. This policy of 3 warm-up pitches is indefensible. It is dangerous. It is unnecessary. And most importantly it is easily correctable.

Imagine in a court of law, with a jury of mom’s and dad’s, grandmothers and grandfathers the USSSA will be forced to make the case that speeding up the game is more important than a simple act of reducing the risk of injury to any young man.

I don’t think anyone wants to be in that position. But the case really is THAT simple. It is a physiological fact that proper warm up is critical in reducing risk of injury. And while it may be debatable that 8 pitchers are even enough to be fully warm it is not debatable that 3 pitches are enough. They simply are far from enough.

Furthermore it is indefensible that fully grown men that are very efficient and skilled in their movement patterns require 8 pitches to warm-up and a 9-13 year olds with undeveloped growth plates and far less efficient movement patterns would require only 3.

Furthermore, youth innings are notoriously long and frequently extended by walks and errors and because of small roster sizes pitchers are frequently required to come into pitch directly from a position in the field without the obvious and crucial advantage of warming up from the bull pen. It would therefore seem logical that we should give our young, immature, less efficient arms at minimum the same warm up we afford a fully grown man. Yet we give them nearly 65% less.

This must not stand. 

If the USSSA wants to find ways to speed up the game, I would happily involve my extensive inner circle of experts and ask them to give the USSSA many suggestions that would be far more effective and most importantly NOT place our young men’s arms, elbows and shoulders at risk.

Furthermore I would be very happy to offer my professional assistance as well as my expert colleagues to the USSSA at absolutely no fee to help craft their innings pitched rules to further reduce the risk of injury.
For me, although this is my profession… this issue in indeed not about money but is ‘ ALL about the kids.’
Until this 3 pitch policy is changed, I believe it is unquestionably true that the USSSA could possibly be culpable in any arm injuries occurring in a USSSA sanctioned event.

And be certain that I and my wife will use all of our considerable influence and contacts …medical, professional, media and legal to help persuade the USSSA and any other youth baseball organization to change said policy. 

As it stands today, youth arm injuries are already at epidemic proportion. We must not add to the problem with short sighted administrative policy.

My wife & I pledge our total commitment in the correcting of this injustice. The average Mom & Dad simply does not have the expertise, resources or political clout to take on an administrative giant like a USSSA. We, on the other hand, do have the expertise, resources and clout to take on a USSSA and we will use it all to right this wrong.

I hope the USSSA will take this letter very seriously and respond in the same constructive spirit in which it was offered. I must state for the record however that my first efforts to educate have been met with cold disregard and distain. I am therefore not optimistic regarding the organization’s response to this letter. Large organizations are notoriously unresponsive to spot lights shown on their obvious flaws and shortcomings. They typically will attempt to deflect, defend and rationalize…and ultimately not change…thinking that kicking the can down the road will help make it simply fade away.

I assure the USSSA that my wife and I will not rest until young arms playing in USSSA sanctioned events are not placed at unnecessary risk simply via a rule instituted to make tournament administration more convenient. That position is simply indefensible and undoubtedly the USSSA will eventually lose that battle, whether that battle is 6 months or 20 years. I would hope the USSSA is wise enough to take this issue and instead of arrogantly resisting change to instead get out in front of this issue and be a national leader in regard to the health and durability of young arms nationwide and become part of the solution instead a part of the problem.

Respectfully Yours,
Ron Wolforth
CEO Texas Baseball Ranch