Ken Waber has tackled a lot of assignments during his career as an educator, from coaching girls golf at Aberdeen to serving as an assistant coach on championship Montesano football teams.
He probably never expected to become a paid pitch counter at Montesano High School baseball games. That, however, was his role during an early season contest between Monte and Hoquiam at Vessey Field this spring.
“I get paid to watch a baseball game,” Waber observed. “Is this a great world we live in or what?”
Waber’s dream job (which includes only a small payment) resulted from a new pitch count regulation in Washington high school baseball this year.
Although adopted nationally, the rule has its roots in Southwest Washington. It undoubtedly was inspired by a much-publicized 2014 incident in which a Rochester High pitcher threw 194 pitches in 14 innings during a district tournament contest.
A pitch-count amendment was rejected by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association’s Representative Assembly last spring. But when the national high school baseball federation enacted such a rule last summer in an attempt to curb arm injuries, the WIAA had little choice but to follow suit.
It puts state high school baseball in line with Little League, which implemented pitch-count rules many years ago.
The Washington rule establishes various thresholds for both pitch counts and rest days between mound appearances.
No pitcher can throw more than 105 pitches in a single game. If he throws between 76 and 105, he must rest three days before returning to the mound.
The rest days are adjusted for lower pitch counts. Someone who throws 50 pitches, for example, can make his next mound appearance after only one day of rest, while a hurler who tosses just 30 can work again the next day.
At the time, I predicted mass chaos from a regulation that I considered unenforceable. During an era in which fans complain about the length of baseball games, I also had a problem with a rule that encouraged batters to take more pitches.
Those fears, thankfully, were overblown.
There was one major controversy in Southwest Washington’s 1A Trico League in which a disparity in pitch counts resulted in a forfeiture that was later overturned on appeal. For the most part, however, the first season using the rule concluded uneventfully.
It probably helped that most area coaches supported the rule’s concept.
“It’s a good rule,” Aberdeen coach Shon Schreiber said. “I like the pitch-cap rule of 105. Heck, even 100 would be good.”
“I do believe the rule has been needed for some time,” Hoquiam coach Steve Jump agreed. “I really like the purpose and the idea behind it. I also believe high school coaches, on the whole, monitor their pitchers — have them do conditioning, long toss and so on so that they recover and do not become injured.”
It’s clear, however, that some provisions of the rule need to be tweaked going forward.
To begin with, there is no consistent policy for counting pitches. The rule only specifies that the home team be responsible for pitch counts, leaving the details to each school.
Some schools hire pitch counters — Waber at Montesano and Aimee and Brett Bradley at Hoquiam, for example — for modest stipends.
Aberdeen, however, had two student statisticians handle the duties for home games — one recording pitches on an IPAD that was the official scorebook and a second keeping a running total on paper.
“We did not have any real problems with the count, but we really didn’t have accountability within the league,” Schreiber reported. “All of us were pretty honest about the pitch counts.”
Pitch-count reporting was also handled inconsistently. Some schools made announcements when pitch counts reached a certain level, but those updates were not mandatory.
Schreiber believes more common sense needs to be applied to the rest-day portion of the regulation. Under the current standard, he noted, he can use someone who throws 30 pitches for four consecutive days. But a starter who threw 76 in one game would essentially be done for the remainder of the week.
“This year we had a problem when we had to play six games in five days,” the AHS coach said. “We ran out of pitching.”
High schools, in my estimation, would also do well to adopt the Little League continuation rule.
A Little League hurler who is a few pitches shy of a pitch-count maximum is allowed to finish with the next batter before being removed, even if he exceeds the limit. Conversely, a high school pitcher who reaches the 105-pitch maximum must immediately be pulled, even with a 3-2 count. Let’s face it, an additional two or three pitches won’t have a great deal of impact on a pitcher’s arm.
While he likes the high school standard, Steve Jump believes significant progress on pitchers’ health may not arrive until pitch-count rules are also adopted by summer youth programs.
The Hoquiam coach has an unusual perspective on the issue. His son, Grizzly pitching ace Skyler Jump, missed his senior season after undergoing Tommy John surgery.
The elder Jump acknowledged that he allowed his son to throw 126 pitches in the 2015 state 1A championship game win over South Whidbey.
“There was no way he was coming out of that game. He was into it and wanted to win it for his team,” Coach Jump said. “I am convinced that game was not the game that injured him. I would also argue that he was cruising through the season at that point. It was a situation later in the summer when he changed his mechanics, trying to overthrow and pitching with less rest because, unfortunately, Babe Ruth does not have the same pitch rule in effect. I do think if they had, it may have saved him from his recent surgery.”
Regardless if summer programs follow suit, pitch count regulations appear to be here to stay at the high school level. It doesn’t take a calculator to determine that.
Rick Anderson: (360) 537-3924; randerson@thedailyworld.com
