3/13/07 Dead Arm

dead arm

Today's post takes me to a story you likely haven't heard much about on ESPN, cnnsi or any of the major sports networks (yet). It is about a pitcher with a dead arm already and it is only March 13th. The season's long journey has just begun and this pitcher is worried, really worried.

The pitcher in question is me. For the last few seasons (spring and fall) I have been the volunteer that pitches to all the kids on my (now) 8 yr old's team. The pitches vary in speed for each player, that is part of being the pitcher, I have to learn where they best are able to hit it and at what speed to deliver the meatball.

Last fall, Jack played for the first time in NYO which stands for North Atlanta Youth Organization...which is long for Extremely-intense-sports-factory. As I had in the church organized league I pitched for Jacks team. An average practice or game saw me throw between 200-250 pitches. No problem. This spring however, the intensity has been raised and with batting practice sessions in the cages before the games, the workload on the trusty arm has increased to between 300-350 pitches (conservatively).

The coaches for his team praise me for the job I do in getting strikes over the plate for the kids to hit. I am worried they get together away from the field and snicker and have a secret pool as to when my arm will fall off completely. If I could get in on the action I would wager sometime in early April.

Sunday night the boys had an hour long practice followed by an hour and half long practice scrimmage. Off to the cage with the bucket of balls and one after another they came marching in for 20-30 swings each. Good thing there are only 13 kids on the team...

After the cage and during the game they were batting around almost every inning, no signal to the bullpen though, batting around is a good thing. In the 3rd inning sometime I started to see some old familiar friends, the spots that preceed a bad headache or migrane. Tough as nails I pitched through it, not really seeing all of homeplate for the last 4 innings but you can't measure toughness in a little league adult pitcher...

We made it through the game and somehow got home and I collapsed into bed at 6 pm for the night.

Best news I had heard was that the next scheduled practice wasn't until Thursday.

Only one thing, my softball team started the season last week. No biggie, except I'm, yep, the pitcher. Completely different motion, shouldn't be a problem, right?

I pride myself as a softball pitcher by being more cerebral than most of the batters and move the ball to where I want it to force them off balance. Last night, no such luck. I walked at least 4 maybe 5 and had zero control all night (my pride is my control).

The really good news is that I can take off until Thursday's practice now, maybe not throw a ball the entire time...

Email shows up this morning from one of the two little league coaches with pictures shot of one of the kids on the team in an extra BP session yesterday. Complete with advice for the kid to follow and work on. Really a nice benefit for the kids. Bad news- tonight Jack and I are going out for extra BP and a photo shoot. Yep, I get to pitch. I really could be the picture taker if given the chance, maybe I need to show up in a sling...let's see, sympathy or called a wuss? Yep, wuss it would be, gotta tough it out.

Note to self, work on lefty throwing, might need it down the stretch. Maybe I need to get them to stop batting around every inning, maybe plunk one or two in the back, show them who is boss?

Who am I kidding, I love it and ya know what? Until I have to get Tommy John surgery I think I will keep throwing strikes.