Why are there so many more baseball pitching injuries today as opposed to the Dead Ball Era?
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 at
6:58 am
Hitting Streak Ideas
Filed under: Baseball Pitching
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There were only 16 teams in MLB during the dead ball era and they only carried 7 or 8 pitchers. Maybe a total of 128 pitchers in all of MLB
Now 30 teams that all carry at least 12 pitchers plus many more on their rosters that are in the development stage and playing in the minors. I would say then that about 1/2 the players on each MLB roster are pitchers or pitching prospects. A total of nearly 600 pitchers in both leagues.
During the dead ball days, pitchers could do any thing they wanted to doctor or make a ball less likely to be hittable. They also would use balls until they literally were misshapen lumps of semi spheroids before replacing them with a new one.
If a pitcher developed a sore arm, they were just replaced. No big deal.
They just went back to where they came from and disappeared into obscurity. No TV, no radio, no national 24 hour a day sports news coverage.
I think because pitchers are making an extra effort to get hitters out because of the extra advantages they have had, and this extra effort creates more risk for injury.
Most of those injuries were not discovered then. It was a broken arm or no injury, forget about blisters, sore arm, fatigue and Tommy John surgery.
Christy Mathewson was a master of the screwball, which nobody throws nowadays.
Most pitchers today don't use there legs more as they use to they pitch more on there upper body plus now most team call up there younger pitcher from the miners when they are not ready yet for the majors.
I don't think that there are more injuries, it's just that years ago guys just got sore arms and lost their stuff and nobody really cared that much. It's just now with the astronomical salaries tied into these pitchers, the medial cares, the guys agent cares, the club cares, and the player knows that he isn't going to find any work that matches the pay that they can receive now so he cares too.
Well, for starters, the pitchers have to work harder and face tougher competition (no more segregation keeping talent out of the game). The mound is different as well. If you watch old clips, you'll notice too that the pitching mechanics have completely changed between then and now.
People are just so careful now a days. You see so many young pitchers get hurt because they are babied up through the system. Everyone is on strict pitch counts and they sometimes just don't throw enough. Back in the dead ball era pitchers just threw, there were no relievers and when they went out they were expected to go 9 innings. They all had tremendous arm strength because of it and didn't let rediculous little injuries like a sore arm affect them.