From Aug 24 - Sept 5, 2009 we conducted a poll of WebBall visitors to gauge their reaction to the concerns and consequences of the Elite 32 tournament decision to give umpires discretion to limit pre-inning mound warm-up pitches to just 3.

No pretense is expressed or implied that this was in any way a scientific survey of all coaches, players, parents involved. Clearly those who responded where folks who follow WebBall and are focused on the coaching philosophies expressed on this site - both our own and those of guest authors, including Ron Wolforth. (See other pages in this section for background).

Still, we have seldom - if ever - seen such overwhelming support for one side over the other in any such controversy.

This page walks you through the charted results. We have created a separate page for the dozens and dozens of comments received... click here.


In all charts below, percentages have been rounded to nearest whole number. Actual results were calculated to at least 1/10th of 1 %.


The numbers above speak for themselves. The U-Trip tournament organizers were condemned for their pitch-limit decision, and for their suspension of the Wolforth's. (FYI: The actual yes on Q1 (left) was 0.88%, there were no "undecided" votes.)


And if the above is not enough to concern the USSSA...



All of the above would be no more than a political controversy without the legtimate concerns about safety raised by imposing a warm-up limit. These next charts show what people think about risk factors and risk avoidance...





We acknowledge the forces of conventional wisdom in the responses above, a conclusion based on voter comments as much as by the numbers. That's why we wanted to know if this was worth pursuing in greater detail...


Our dilemma is this - few seem willing to even consider science, or change their mind on the subject, yet most people want WebBall to find out. Why? To reinforce their firmly held beliefs, or to satisfy idle curiosity, or to show the Wolforths that they were right.

It's not that simple. We are working now to develop a meaningful and reliable method to collect and analyze data. We do want to answer the question - to find out what/if any relationship exists between mound warm-ups, game performance, and risk to pitchers. Stay tuned.