Teams have so much money invested in pitchers now they have to take a cautious approach. Ron Washington caught grief earlier this season for letting Yu Darvish go 130 pitches.
Pitch counts when you sing the national anthem, but not when they sang “take me out to the ball game”. I haven’t been to a baseball game since 9/11. Do they still God bless America?
That was a bitter loss and may partly account for the fact that I have not given a damn about sports since.
Couple things going on:
1) Pitchers used to “coast” - now that pretty much have to throw at maximum effort all the time just to survive.
2) We’ve forgotten the names of all the pitchers that lasted a couple of seasons and then blew their arms out throwing really high pitch counts, and remember the freaks (Spahn, Marichal) who didn’t
Everybody is a "Specialist", and Complete Games are few and far between....100 pitches, and you're pulled for the Reliever, or middle-man, or Closer....different times/different game.
Amazing ...Spahn was 42 and threw over 200 pitches .
Reds Pitcher Homer Bailey just pitched his second No-Hitter. Amazing thing is he was the last one to pitch a no hitter last year.
Except for a little catchers mitt I bought when I was 5, my first good glove which served me through little league, pony league, and High School baseball was a Warren Spahn.
I picked it out at the Western Auto in DeFuniak Springs, FL. Tho Spahn was a left hander, my glove was for a right handed player.
I think one of my Nephews eventually stole it.
Watched some of the finals of the US college women’s softball tournament a month or so ago - their pitchers were regularly throwing 130 or more times a game, and then likely to be back pitching again in a day or two - not the same thing of course, but it is amusing to me that today’s pro pitchers seem to be into risky territory when they get up to 110 throws - like pro football players who run one play and then have to head for the bench for a drink and oxygen - good thing our military is still as tough as it ever was......