The story below from "The Coaches Box" Vilume 1, No 7, October 2006:

The top three reasons Al and I partnered with Little League over 12 years are: Little League’s commitment to safety, the education and training of volunteers, the careful all-around development of the players that sign up to play baseball and softball.

This season Little League has stepped up to implement a program to protect the throwing arms of young pitchers right across the organization. Little League worked with experts in the field, piloted the program in hundreds of leagues and now has included a Pitch-Count regulation for each level of play.

Over the years Al and I have watched thousands of games in local leagues, in tournament play and at the Little League Baseball World Series and have seen pitchers hurt their arms by being allowed to throw far too many pitches. At times the player’s pitch-count went well beyond what highly-trained Major League Baseball players throw in a game.

We believe this new regulation will help protect and develop young arms right across the organization and whole-heartedly support this initiative. Way to go Little League!

Coaches, Al and I would like to offer a little more advice on this front. The pitch-count “limits” in the regulation are just that, “limits”. Several of the pitchers on your team are not strong enough to pitch to the maximum and early in your season none of the pitchers on your team should be expected to pitch to the limit.

Here is the development approach I used when I was coaching in Little League:

First, I taught all players how to pitch and made sure everyone got the chance to work on the pitching technique in almost every practice. At every level of play coaches are always looking for more pitchers. I always felt if I had 12 players on my team I needed 13 pitchers, so why not develop them all.

Second, I implemented my own team pitch-count guideline:

- In a pitchers first outing of the year I kept the pitch count between 35-45 pitches.

- In the pitchers second outing of the year, usually in the second week of the season 45-55 pitches.

- The third outing the pitcher could throw 55-65 pitches in the game.

- In the pitchers fourth outing, usually a month into the season, I allowed 65-75 pitches.

Coaches, by using this approach, I was able to develop the strength and technique of everyone on the team without any setbacks due to injury or soreness. And surprisingly we won our fair share of the ball games early on and later in the season competed with everyone.

Coaches, never leave a pitcher on the mound, when you recognize they are getting a little tired or showing any signs of soreness, regardless of the number of pitches they have thrown. A good coach does not ask a pitcher if they would like to continue, he/she recognizes when a pitcher is getting tired or sore and immediately brings the player off the mound.

The player’s arm, of course, is far more important than winning any ball game. Coaches, if you handle your players properly, the pitcher should be able to do their work on the mound and then move to another defensive position on the field and make the plays without any soreness. Another heads-up for you, if your player has a sore arm the day after pitching, you left him on the mound too long!

Here are some of the other benefits of this new Little League  regulation:

- More players get a chance at this key position and develop the courage that comes along with experiencing it.

- More balls will be in play so players in the field will have more fun.

- Your pitchers will quickly figure out that if they want to pitch a complete game they will need to throw strikes, put the ball in play, and have innings where their team gets three outs with 4-5 pitches.

Coaches and Managers, protecting and carefully developing the throwing arms of all of your players should be a top priority. We know you are going to like this new regulation, have a great season!

The story below from "The Coaches Box" Vilume 1, No 7, October 2006:

Little League International’s Board of Directors voted in August to replace the baseball program’s innings-pitched rules with a pitch count to determine the eligibility of Little League pitchers. From the point that the decision was made, an overriding question has been: Who is responsible for counting the pitches?

In the weeks since the announcement, Little League International has blitzed its volunteers with a myriad of materials designed to inform and educate local leagues on the rules that will be in place for the upcoming 2007 season. That effort will continue in the months ahead.

Recently, Nick Caringi, director of operations for Little League Baseball and Softball, was a guest on “Ask Little League,” Little League’s on-line chat series. Of the more than 275 questions submitted, Mr. Caringi fielded many queries about who on the local level will be tasked with charting the number of pitches thrown in a game.

The full transcript of Mr. Caringi’s remarks can be found here: http://www.littleleague.org/askll/06octsession.asp

Many of the questioners included mention of an appreciation for the pitch count, but wanted to know the best method for adhering to the rules given the structure of their local leagues.

Mr. Caringi offered a variety of suggestions to help ease the transition and highlighted resources currently, and soon to be, available to local leagues.

Reflecting on the success of the Pitch Count Pilot Program that Little League International made available to all of its leagues for the 2005 season, Mr. Caringi said nearly 500 leagues opted into the program and devised a wide array of possibilities for counting pitches.

Several approaches and ideas have been pooled and many effective methods focused on the game’s scorekeeper being responsible for the tally.

In a response to Brian, a local Little League vice president from Sharon, Pa., Mr. Caringi said, “… Since scorekeepers already keep track of balls and strikes (as a backup to the umpire), the only additional duties will be to mark down the number of foul balls hit with two strikes, and to total up the number of pitches after each inning for each pitcher.”

Regarding the burden already placed on the scorekeeper to follow the happenings in a game, and now adding the responsibility of counting pitches, Mr. Caringi said in his reply to Eric, a local Little league information officer from Springfield, Va., “ … (Some leagues) found it best to assign the duty to the scorekeeper. Others assigned it to the managers, but that requires the league to be very trusting of its managers. Still others found it easier to simply assign the duty to an assistant to the scorekeeper, who tracks only the pitches. Some even had the base umpire do the counting.”

Dozens of scenarios and solutions have been discussed when talking about establishing an accurate pitch count. That is why, as Mr. Caringi explained in his response to Jim, a local league president in Medford, N.Y., “Your league makes the final decision, based on your own situation. Little League will be following up with lots of advice. Ultimately, your league has to decide which (one) person has the official count.”

Some of the tools to count and track pitches (including foul balls) are already available as Mr. Caringi explained in his reply to Phil, a district safety officer and secretary in South Holland, Ill.

“Your league could use hand-held counters (available in many places, such as an office supply store – the ones used to count inventory),” Mr. Caringi said. “Or, your league could have a simple sheet of paper used for this purpose, or check off pitches in a scorebook.”

Many of the comments offered by those participating in the “Ask Little League” session said that their local leagues have already begun implementing the new rule in their fall season, or are currently making plans to comply. Leagues also have looked at the potential of elaborating on the pitch count by incorporating local league rules that provide fairness and accountability to both teams.

Jim, a local Little League information officer in North Miami Beach, Fla., said, “Some of us down here in Florida have already promulgated a local rule that requires the home team for each game to provide an official scorekeeper/pitch counter, and requires all teams to keep careful track in their scorebooks of total pitch count for each pitcher in each game.”

Whether an official rule or a local rule, leagues still must be able to track the information in a uniform manner, which prompted Kathi, a local Little League secretary from Henderson, Nev., to ask about the suggested documents to record and verify the pitch counts.

“That is an important point to make,” Mr. Caringi said. “Over the past two years, we’ve had several hundred leagues involved in a Pitch Count Pilot Program. We knew those leagues could come up with some pretty creative ideas, so we left it up to them. Over the next few months, we will be giving you free access to the best of the materials those leagues created, so the transition can be made easier, and will take the guesswork out of the pitch count regulation.”

All of the current information on the pitch count can be found here: http://www.littleleague.org/media/pitch_count_10-03-06.asp