phillyfan,
Exactly what I was thinking!!!!!!!!
I believe the curveball gets a bad reputation because when someone gets hurt they assume it was a result of throwing a curveball. How do they know for sure? I've never seen any test prove that a curveball was more stressful than a fastball, but I have seen one that suggested a curveball was LESS stressful.
I'm not trying to say you should start throwing a curveball at an early age. In fact, I believe you should wait until you are older just to give yourself the opportunity to develop a good fastball and change up. I just believe we should blame arm injuries more on bad mechanics and poor conditioning rather than assuming that curveballs are the reason for an injured arm.
Remember, kinetic energy increases with the square of the velocity. Baseballs are thrown at a high velocity, thus a relatively high kinetic energy. When someone throws a baseball at 95mph, their fingertips reach a velocity equal to 95mph. Now imagine your fingers hitting a hard object at 95mph. Imagine the damage that would be done to your hand if it hit a brick wall at that speed! I'm trying to paint everyone a picture of the magnitude of energy that the body has to absorb on every pitch.
Baseball could ban curveballs at every level, and arm injuries would still exist. I once witnessed a kid break his arm while throwing a fastball.
Do curveballs hurt your arm? Yes, but fastballs, change ups, and every other pitch do as well. When you decide to play baseball, you are willing to take the risk of hurting your arm while throwing.
Again, I'm not saying you should throw curveballs at an early age. But, don't assume your going to be injury free just because you decide not to throw a curveball until your 16 (or whatever that "magic" age is that everyone suggests).
I'm not suggesting that anyone is right or wrong, I'm merely presenting another side of the issue.
Take care.