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I think some combo of pitch count and innings at the lower levels is a wise choice. I'd leave that up to the alleged experts to decide, though.

The Babe Ruth rule is "one pitch = one inning." That does make for simple accounting (though I once had a kid come in, warm up, then pick off the kid at first to end the inning before throwing a pitch -- no inning, IMO, though others argued it counted since he got on the rubber and made a "throw." I really don't like the inning rule because, for one, many teams only have a few kids who can truly pitch (putting them at a competitive disadvantage by the end of each "pitching week") and some kids are fairly efficient where the pitch count is low but the inning count gets in the way (also had a kid walk out, throw three pitches, get three outs, but then burned a BR inning for the week. I mean, what if a kid goes out there on a Tuesday, throws all of 60 pitches in a 7-inning BR game? He's done for the week, though he could viably throw again on Friday or Saturday.

But I do agree that a hard, fast pitch count doesn't take into account the difference in kids. I've had some where once they crest 50 pitches (and I do keep pitch counts, even from the sideline for the Junior Legion team), you know to start watching for fatigue issues. We just had one pitcher, Jaren Cooper, return after missing a year on the mound because of some elbow problems, so we have been pretty careful about his counts and slowly building on that. But we also have another kid, Jaymin Weaver, who really gets effective once he passes about 75 pitches, and seems like he could throw twice that.

Bottom line it becomes the responsibility of the manager. Common sense should be the norm, and you can't legislate common sense. Kids, parents and coaches need to be actually "educated" about the issues. But I don't think anyone actually does it, so rules such as innnigs pitched and pitch counts have to be administered.

I think ALL kids need to have sound mechanics AS WELL AS learn how to develop a throwing routine. They all need to learn how to get warmed up properly, for example. We've got one guy, honest to goodness, he feels "loose" after about 30 throws (not necessarily pitches) so he thinks he's ready to go. And sure enough he tends to struggle the first few innings because he's not truly ready to go. Now, this is a kid who can throw all day long and never complains of a sore arm. But he just doesn't understand why he really needs to go through a warm-up routine for a good 15 minutes or more to make sure he's fully limber and truly "dialed in" from the START.

But you're right, JK. Kids don't throw that much anymore. We threw all the time when we were kids. Rarely did you hear of sore arms. And we were adamantly kept from trying to throw breaking pitches until we were 14 or so. Now I see kids twisting their arms at 11 and 12 (or even younger). GEEZ -- learn to throw strikes (in and out, up and down) and change speeds first!!!

Seems to me most of the Legion sponsorships in Perry County have been for Babe Ruth teams -- notably Roseville and Somerset. As I noted above, perhaps the Posts in Perry County could be swayed to combine their efforts to begin a Legion baseball program down there.

Just thinking, but I believe there were only two Perry County kids involved on our Legion teams this summer -- Aaron Adams on the Senior team and Austen Erwin on the Junior team. The obvious reasoning, of course, would be travel time, even for the home games at ZHS. Couple that with the greater number of scheduled games and it's one heck of a commitment for any kid who lives in and around Zanesville let alone one who might live in New Lex or Somerset.

Frankly, I'd like to see a Perry County entry in Legion ball, because there would be at least one road trip that wouldn't be a long one. And I feel that if Glouster can have at least a Junior team, Perry County could go that route, too. First problem: where would they play their home games? I would have to be either Crooksville or Sheridan HS, IMO, since there are so many BR teams that use the New Lex field. I only exclude Miller due to its more remote site in the county.

I'd have to think about how the Zanesville Legion kids, about how many aren't solely baseball players. I think it's higher than it might seem. But I do think that if such a team in Perry County was open to all four school districts, it's likely you'd find enough kids to form at least one team. It is understandable, however, about kids' commitments. Not trying to be funny here, but we also don't have many kids with 4-H commitments here, either, while that is much more prevalent down that way.

In actuality, travel for a Perry County team could be (should be) less than for ours (in terms of distances). As an example, our Juniors had road games this year at Athens, Glouster, Newark, Lancaster, Pickerington and Upper Arlington (the bulk of our schedule was at home this year, though we played a couple home games at West M, and a couple games in the Senior tournament at Muskingum University). We travelled a bit more the previous summer, which inlcuded all of the above except Glouster and UA, as well as trips to Chillicothe, Johnstown and Prospect (up near Marion). I think that's about it. So, really, a PC team would be much closer to these other posts. And to be honest, after tryouts and a couple of workouts, I don't recall the Juniors having any formal practices once the season began -- you end up playing so much there almost isn't much time for that.

I figure it might be something worth exploring down there, if nothing else but to gauge interest on the part of the Legion itself and of potential players.