Reply to "Pitching Inside"

I don't remember one in HS at all, mainly because most hitters were afraid of him, same when he was younger he threw hard, they were afraid or it sounded like he was throwing hard. He may have plunked one or two when younger, but nothing that I remember actually. That's one of the reasons why he was able to learn to pitch inside the plate, most hitter stayed far back.

I may be mssing a plunk or two, but I cannot honestly remember him hitting anyone, even when he first started pitching, that was a long time ago (14-15 years). I do remember teh first time he plunked someone in college, husband and I turned to each other, both said, we've never seen that before.

This year he unfortunetly hit a batter in the head, suffering from tendinitous, he lost control of the ball. That was one of the reasons he was shut down, that's not his normal stuff. Most batters know that it is not intentional. After awhile the hitters learn about a pitcher, and learn to stay back if he has a habit of hitting pitchers. I do beleive that if a young pitcher hits batters on a continuos basis he maybe needs to be removed until he finds control or refines mechanics. Coming inside and hitting a batter is not uncommon but shouldn't be taught until he has mastered the other stuff. JMO.

I remember (my memory is not that bad) way back in when son was younger a pitcher threw a pitch right to the batters face (he didn't have good control), broken jaw and teeth missing. Those parents petitioned for the pitcher to be removed as he had hit too many before that. It was not done on purpose, and actually the coach should have been working with him or taken the ball away before that unfortunate incident occured. That poor kid never came back to baseball.