OT: Baseball-Aaron Judge injury

[Dove]

That's baseball, Suzyn!!"

 

[Monte]

Everyone should wear catcher's gear(on the field, and at bat)..........OR, use a whiffle ball.

 

[Carnac]

Manager Tony LaRussa of the A's, & Cardinals had a team rule if you hit one of ours we hit 2 of yours! Whether they thought it was intentional or not!
Bob Gibson once told his past catcher Tim McCarver when traded from the Cardinals to the Phillies if you crowd the plate when we face each other I'll "get you"! He did!
Years ago it was so much simpler if a pitcher hit a batter when HE batted later he would be thrown at and it was over! Now in the AL pitchers don't bat!
Now after a hit batter the umpire can warn both benches that the next thrown at is kicked out! So the incident festers on and on!

Former Los Angels Dodger pitcher Don Drysdale had the same exact policy. One of ours go down, two of yours go down. That was 56 years ago. As with Bob Gibson, you did not want to get hit by a Drysdale fastball.

Both men threw extremely hard. They were power pitchers who had no problem throwing inside. THAT was/is the culture in baseball. A culture that was born in the late 1800's, and has survived to this day.

Cleveland Indians shortstop Ray Chapman was hit in the head by a pitch thrown by Yankees pitcher Carl Mays on August 16, 1920, and died 12 hours later. He remains the only Major League Baseball player to have died from an injury received during an MLB game. It can/has happen!!!

 

[Bigboote]

Herb Score (RIP) , a probable HOF and Cleveland's other starter next to Bob Feller. Hit by a line drive hit by Yankee Gil McDougald. essentially ended his career..things happen.

Dizzy Deane, too. A hot shot broke his big toe. He came back too soon, had to alter his windup and ruined his arm in the process.

 

[Bigboote]

Pitchers dont know how to throw inside, with guys now throwing 95 plus even scrub pitchers are throwing that heat which is scary.

Bingo! I have a problem with the way pitchers are being taught. They're encouraged from a very young age to throw as hard as they can. They're throwing too hard too early. This means they continue to throw harder than is good for them (or the guys they hit). Tommy John surgery is more and more common as a result of this, and there's a cascading effect. A pitcher throwing 200 innings is the equivalent of 300 innings 40 years ago. It used to be common for a few pitchers to throw 25-30 complete games in a season, now I wouldn't be surprised if there aren't 30 complete games in the AL in a season. The long reliever and even middle reliever are pretty much a thing of the past -- relievers don't often throw more than one inning apiece, and seldom more than two. So fear of pitchers throwing too many innings is indirectly responsible for the three-hour average game length.

You just need to dial your speed back a few percent to both gain much more control and be much easier on your arm. Sandy Koufax went from being a journeyman to a great pitcher by taking just a few mph off his fastball. Unfortunately, he'd already done too much damage to his arm.

The other thing that happens when players are young is that they use aluminum bats. The Al bat has a sweet spot that extends much closer to the hands. That's why pitchers don't learn to control their inside pitches when they're learning to pitch. Anything middle-in is much easier to launch with an Al bat than a wooden bat, so there's no motivation to learn to keep hitters away from the plate.

I would love to see two-tiered leagues with one tier using wooden bats, beginning whenever kids are really learning to pitch these days. [I didn't catch a curve ball till traveling league (13 yo); no idea when they're starting now.]

 

[paisan]

Thank you all for your input...I was beginning to wonder if I was the only fan who thought about this topic. I might add that personally I don’t care if it is intentional or not pitcher should pay a price not his teammates.

 

[jsloanjr]

This is the Yankees strategy to sit Judge, Didi, Sanchez and Chapman for a few weeks and let the Red Sox get lazy and they bring everyone back, rested to crush them down the stretch and win the American League east title outright......Sorry Red Sox fans......