As Midlo Dad mentioned, we've now beaten the dead horse, allowed it to decay.....
....and we're now digging it back up for another beating. I know the summer can be slow on the HS Baseball front, but I think it's time to move on...
The VHSL ruled consistently throughout the year from everything I can find. This is the way they had and have always interpreted the rule whenever there was a situation throughout the year. I'm quite positive there were more situations where pitchers pitched one inning in a similar situation before the state tournament. Whether or not the VHSL needs to pull someone in to write legal jargon on their slides and in their rules is a different matter. If we don't like the rule the way it's written for any number of reasons then we're allowed to have our opinion. My opinion would tend to agree with the VHSL. I personally think the VHSL's interpretation is perfect. I DO believe that a pitcher can throw an inning and have it be a rest day in that situation, as it stands. Pitchers throw bullpens in between starts, and if they're training correctly they should be throwing every day during the meat of the season. To AmericasPastime's point, we have been reducing the number of innings and pitches that pitchers have thrown for decades now and arm injuries have at the very least held steady and someone could certainly argue they've risen. It's not working. It's just like if I was to go to the gym tomorrow and squat for the first time in a year. The chances of me hurting myself are MUCH higher than if I was to squat every single day, which in itself would normally be seen as completely against common sense for weight training. Our bodies have AMAZING! abilities to adapt to their environments. People in Kenya are forced to run everyday because they have to. It's life or death sometimes. They have to in order to get water for they're families, or to make a trip to the grocery store. No one is saying, you feel sore today so don't push yourself too hard you might hurt your hamstring. Well, what do you know, they coming over and start training with Americans are they're lapping those who have been "scientifically" trained from a young age. Tony Romo mentioned last week that he aims to throw a football 345 of 365 days a year. A pitcher may not be able to meet that schedule because the motion is more taxing on the arm, but it's proof that throwing doesn't equal arm injuries. Poor mechanics, lack of strength from lack of conditioning does. If your arm is used to being used mechanically and correctly then it won't be shocked when it's used and will become more resistant to overuse rather than more susceptible. I would stand my ground firm on that to anyone anywhere. Arm injuries are just not from overuse, they are from incorrect use. Now, I can already here the arguments "Well a game is much more stressful, much more taxing." I think that's an excuse and disingenuous for the sake of argument. If you're working at 85% in a bullpen you're not improving and putting yourself at risk of injury. Because think about what happens when we go 85% on the mound. I know from experience that it usually it means we go 85% with our legs, core and body and leave our arm to pick up the rest of the slack. Even an arm that's not using 100% of it's juice on that day is have more strain put on it proportionally than it would otherwise. Not to mention, a guy who does that loses the tempo and feel of his pitches. So, a real pitcher isn't really doing anything out of the ordinary by throwing an inning in place of that bullpen. No matter if it's a state tournament or a sandlot game.
But regardless of whether one would agree with all that or not, we CAN'T take our interpretation and tell the VHSL what they should have done (unless of course we want to quit our jobs and get on the board.) Even if what we see doesn't match some of our opinions about how the rule should be read it doesn't make the VHSL wrong for enforcing it the way they intended. Actually, I'd argue it would have been wrong if they bowed to complaints and reversed their intent at the end the year.
It's time to drop the issue of last season. If there is a claim to be made to the VHSL to rewrite the rule, then make it. But no one with any ACTUAL knowledge of VHSL decision making has indicated that they ever wavered when contacted directly about the rule. Whether we like the wording or agree that the wording marries with the way it was enforced, the VHSL ruled that way all year and by that measurement every team did in fact play under the same rules and had access to the VHSL to get the same feedback that Great Bridge, Hanover got. It was the same muddy rule for everyone and everyone had the same access to clarifications on VHSL intent. We need to put that debate to rest.
If someone can bring me one VHSL official source that says anything to the extent of "we originally didn't want a pitcher to be able to do that" then we'll have something to talk about. It's not just about saving face for the VHSL even if their opinion is contradictory to yours or mine. Truth is, we have absolutely no reason to think it isn't the truth. Any claim otherwise just isn't based in factual evidence. Any claim that they did this to save face just doesn't make sense. They had all year to clarify if they didn't want a situation like this to occur (as there were situations where they stepped in and did enforce the rule.) The truth of the matter is... this is how they intended it to be enforced. Agree or disagree, but for what it's worth let's quit trying to rewrite history or waste time and emotion worrying about it. It would be better spent on the future.