Photo Credit: NAYS
One of the most vivid memories I have from my days playing youth and high school baseball is the importance that was put on the best pitchers of those teams. Whether it was 12-year-old all-stars playing for a district title, 14-year-olds competing in the state tournament, or big high school games, there always seemed to be one guy on the team whom the coaches counted on to take the mound for those big games.
I can’t tell you how many times I sat with one of my teammates in the stands after a game—or even during games—icing an arm that he literally could not lift from his side because he had thrown so many pitches. And then two or three days later he was out there on the mound again.
My dad, the founder of our organization, has told the story a hundred times of the coach who walked out to the mound during one of my brothers’ games and told the 11-year-old pitcher, who was close to tears because of arm pain, “Be a man. Do you want to lose this game?” In fact, my father claims to this day that that incident was one of the main reasons he was inspired to start a coach-training organization.