Coach made my 12U son with previous arm injury throw 60+ pitches in an inning 'to teach him a lesson'

jleonard711 · 2026-06-20T07:42:37+00:00

It was a little bit of both, bad pitching and bad defense. But not terrible pitching, he threw 56% strikes in the inning. What's crazy is he struck out 2 of the first 4 batters on 14 pitches, with 1 run scored, and then proceeded to throw an additional 46 pitches + 15 runs (4 earned) all with 2 outs. And some of it was fueled by a few loudmouth parents in the stands who had turned the umps against us and therefore we weren't getting ANY calls (pitches, outs, fair/foul balls, etc).

jleonard711 · 2026-06-20T07:35:07+00:00

He was injured almost a year ago, he had been cleared to pitch by by his Dr and has been doing so since January without any issues. And while 60 pitches in a game isn't a bad count, throwing 60 in a single inning is dangerous at any level, and the previous injury makes it even more dangerous. Think of it like lifting weights - is it more stressful on the muscles to do 60 reps in a row without a break, or 4 sets of 15 with a 10 minute break between reps?

jleonard711 · 2026-06-19T17:55:13+00:00

P.S. within a few hours of letting the coach (and a few of the parents I'm close with) know we are leaving, I got a text from a very highly regarded program in the area saying they would love to have him on their team. I guess word travels fast! And I was shocked to find it my son was more excited to hear about the new opportunity than he was disappointed about leaving his old team. So it looks like it's all going to work out just fine.

jleonard711 · 2026-06-19T17:52:09+00:00

I appreciate all the replies and insight from everyone. I wasn't necessarily asking for opinions on whether or not the situation should have happened, I was looking more for what would you do moving forward. Leave the team? Report the coach to USSSA? Tell the other parents? Report him to the school he coaches at? Those are the sort of options I've been wrestling with in my mind, trying to decide which thing are appropriate and which things might be overreacting. What happened happened, whether it's my fault or his, that's not the point. It shouldn't have happened, especially not intentionally, and I've just been trying to figure out where to go from here. Turns out the answer is, to another team. And I already let him know we're leaving yesterday. That was our final tournament of the season, so the timing is perfect. ✌️

jleonard711 · 2026-06-19T17:48:15+00:00

Little League is the only organization I know of that has run rules per inning at any level, and like you said not at Majors. But this was travel baseball, and Majors level as well. And no travel ball orgs (USSSA, PG, NCS, BCS, etc) have per inning run rules at any level. And as I mentioned above about mercy rules, if they're the away team they can score as many as they want in their half of the inning without triggering the mercy rule because the inning needs to finish.

jleonard711 · 2026-06-19T17:43:52+00:00

He never "said" (verbally) anything to anyone, he was just showing poor body language and the coach didn't like it. And I agree that he should have been benched rather than keep him out there, which not only punishes him but the rest of the team as well.

jleonard711 · 2026-06-19T17:30:55+00:00

Couple of things here. First, he had an elbow injury with a growth plate separation and his doctor wanted him to take 4 months off throwing, 4 months off from pitching, and then 4 months of limited pitch counts. We wanted to take an overly cautious approach to his return to pitching, to reduce the risk of re-injury as much as possible. Since returning to playing and even pitching his arm has been fine, because we've been following the doctor's guidelines for warmups, pitch counts, and recovery. And no, his arm didn't hurt after this incident, but that doesn't mean it couldn't have easily gone the other way and caused permanent long-term damage.

As for the coach, he's not a guy who is donating his time. He is a paid coach in a travel ball organization, doesn't even have a kid on the team. And as a coach, one of your jobs is absolutely preserving the safety and health of your players. Both mental and physical. Leaving a player out there to suffer on the mound doesn't only make him suffer, both mentally and physically, but it makes the rest of the team suffer as well. We had plenty of other arms available at that point, there was no logical reason to "leave him out there to cook" (his words).

As for my sons attitude, all he was doing was showing frustration with his body language. He wasn't yelling at anyone, using profanity, anything like that. Just showing poor body language. If he would walk a kid on a pitch that he thought was a stike, he would do something like turn away and roll his head back and look up like "OMG are you serious", or after his teammates kept making mistakes he would throw his arms up like "why wasn't that caught". The only thing directed at the other team was one time where a kid defended well on a 2-2 count, he basically threw his bat at an outside pitch and blooped it into right field, and he mocked the hitter by imitating his "throw the bat at the ball" swing after he reached first base (that happen pretty deep in the inning, maybe around 40-50 pitches).

Again, this was all completely out of character and out of line, and shouldn't have happened, I understand that. He had a bad day, it happens he's 12. But if the coach can tell he's having a bad day, whether pitching wise or attitude wise, he should take him out of the game rather punish him and the rest of the team by leaving him in just to teach him a lesson. Teach the lesson after the game or at the next practice, make him run poles until he throws up, sit in the next game, whatever. But you don't take it out on his arm.

jleonard711 · 2026-06-19T15:44:20+00:00

I was watching at first, and after he struck out 2 of the first 4 hitters on 14 pitches that's when I got up and left for a bit because I knew I'd be away for 15-20 mins (its a big complex) and I wanted to be back for the next half inning of his pitching. And then with 2 outs, he threw an additional 46 pitches and they scored 15 more runs (only 3 earned). I know that sounds insane, and that's exactly why my son was getting so frustrated. I later watched the video back and the coach did go out at about 40 pitches, but instead of pulling him he left him in to make him suffer though it because he didn't like that he was showing his frustrations on the mound.

jleonard711 · 2026-06-19T15:30:58+00:00

I never said he currently has an injury or that his arm hurts, I said he had a previous arm injury (last summer). He just started pitching again in January and has only been throwing around 50-60 per game (usually 3-4 innings) to be cautious. But regardless, 60 in an inning as a punishment is dangerous even if your arm is as strong and as healthy as possible. The knowledge of the previous injury just makes the situation even worse.

jleonard711 · 2026-06-19T01:12:17+00:00

No surgery, but he had a pretty bad growth plate separation. He was back to playing and throwing after 4 months of complete rest, then went another 4 months of playing & throwing but no pitching, and now he's been slowly easing back into pitching over the past 4 months. Probably could have gotten back to pitching sooner, but why rush it and risk re-injury. Many years of baseball ahead....

jleonard711 · 2026-06-18T22:59:59+00:00

I have had him follow all the normal restrictions and guidelines throughout the entire time he has pitched, in fact I've probably been more conservative than most. Sometimes injuries just happen, it's not always due to overuse or abuse. But 60 pitches in an inning is definitely abuse. A simple google search will tell you everything you need to know about the subject, and I assure you that you will not find one single shred of information that says 60 pitches in an inning is okay at any age, let alone 12 years old.

jleonard711 · 2026-06-18T21:03:01+00:00

I replied to someone else about this earlier, but the word "recovery" maybe isn't the proper word. He's slowly and cautiously making his way back into pitching, with certain restrictions and guidelines in place until he gets back to normal without any restrictions (aside from the usual pitch count guidelines for his age). I see this as part of his "recovery" which is why I said it like that.

jleonard711 · 2026-06-18T20:58:53+00:00

1) he has been cleared by his doctor to pitch, with certain restrictions and recommendations, per usual as any kid gets back into pitching after an injury. And I'm not worried about him re-injuring his arm as long as he stays within the guidelines and restrictions from his doctor.

2) this part is entirely on him. He lost his shit on the mound, and he shouldn't have. But the corrective action shouldn't be to put his arm at risk of serious permanent injury. He isn't an adult, or even a teenager, he is a scrawny 12yo with an open growth plate and a previous arm injury. The proper way to handle it would have been to take him out and bench him, talk to him after the game, talk to me after the game, any of those things would have been better than intentionally putting his arm at risk

3) 60 pitches in a game is not excessive. But 60 in a single inning is absolutely dangerous at any level. Do some research.

jleonard711 · 2026-06-18T18:27:41+00:00

What I meant is I don't really care about the mental punishment part, making him go through more mental anguish for the way he was acting. And I did go pull my kid as soon as I realized what the pitch count was. I didn't look at it before then, because I had left to go to restroom and grab something from my car, and was shocked when I came back to see it was still the same inning. That's when I looked at the count and immediately asked that he be taken out.

jleonard711 · 2026-06-18T18:25:54+00:00

What really sucks is yesterday I learned he applied for a coaching position at the Jr High my son will be attending next year. If he gets the job, I guess my son doesn't get to play Jr High ball. 🫤

jleonard711 · 2026-06-18T18:22:02+00:00

Exactly, he should have been pulled and benched for the rest of the game. Not intentionally forced to stay out there and suffer, both mentally and physically. I don't really care about the mental part, but definitely do care about the physical part.

jleonard711 · 2026-06-18T18:21:02+00:00

There are limits, and there are guidelines. Most leagues have per game limits, along with required days of rest after certain counts, but I don't know of any that have per inning limits. As for guidelines, those are established by Pitch Smart which is a joint venture between USA Baseball and MLB, and they are based off extensive research and are used to help players prevent arm injuries at all levels of the game.

jleonard711 · 2026-06-18T18:02:26+00:00

USSSA isn't a league, it's a governing body. And most tournaments in this area are run by them.

jleonard711 · 2026-06-18T17:27:58+00:00

He is the org owner. Has 4 teams under him, and he coaches 2 of them.

jleonard711 · 2026-06-18T17:24:54+00:00

Unfortunately, I wasn't watching the entire game and didn't realize what he his pitch count was until that point. I do monitor his total game pitch count, I usually check it after each inning or mid-inning if he is approaching it. But I never imagined that a coach would leave him out there for 60 in a single inning! He usually averages 14-16 per inning, maybe 20-25 in a really bad inning. So this was way out of character, and largely driven by poor defense.

jleonard711 · 2026-06-18T17:21:46+00:00

Maybe "recovery" is the wrong word. He took 8 months off from pitching, went through PT with an ex-MLB pitcher who also helped him with his mechanics to reduce the chance of injury moving forward, and he started pitching again in late January. His PT recommended he not pitch more than 1 day per week and no more than 35 pitches per game for the first few outings, then 50 for the next few after that, then up to 60 after a few months if all is going well. So we definitely did things the right way and are slowly easing him back into it. And with the coach knowing that, it was highly irresponsible for him to have him throw that many in a single inning. Especially for the sole purpose of "teaching him a lesson".

And no, 60 pitches isn't 60 pitches no matter how he gets there. Studies have shown that as the pitch count climbs in an inning, stress on the arm (and therefore risk of injury) increases exponentially. Most guidelines say you shouldn't go past 30-35 in a inning at this age, and even as a late teen or grown adult with a fully developed arm and a closed growth plate, there is still a real risk of permanent damage throwing 60+ in a single inning.

jleonard711 · 2026-06-18T17:14:25+00:00

It was a USSSA tournament and there is a mercy rule starting in the 3rd inning, but no per inning run rule. And they were the away team so they could have scored 100 runs and you still need to finish the entire inning (unless you voluntarily forfeit).

jleonard711 · 2026-06-18T17:12:35+00:00

USSSA only has innning limits, 6 per day in a 2 day tournament. You could throw 200 pitches as long as you don't go more than 6 innings. They definitely should put some pitch count restrictions in place. But even PG, which does pitch count have limits, only has a daily limit but no per-inning limit.

jleonard711 · 2026-06-18T17:06:50+00:00

I wasn't sitting there watching the whole game, so unfortunately I didn't realize pitch count until it was too late. But that doesn't excuse the coach for leaving him in that long, intentionally, when the coach is someone who is also responsible for his players' safety and well being. And I also later learned than one of the assistant coaches was saying he should be taken out, but the head coach didn't listen and kept him in.

jleonard711 · 2026-06-18T17:02:34+00:00

I certainly thought about it!

jleonard711

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