Just Throw Strikes — Baseball Bench Coach

Every parent of a youth baseball or softball pitcher grimaces when these words are exclaimed by another parent or spectator at a game: “just throw strikes”. While the words are often meant to be encouraging, the idea that a pitcher always has the physical ability to locate pitches in the strike zone is wrong. Your body just doesn’t work that way. Pitchers spend numerous hours of practice on delivery, yet not every game, inning, batter, or pitch goes the way they want. Pitchers at every level either don’t seem to have their usual control in a game, or regrettably, a single pitch goes awry and hits the batter. Pitching is not easy.

About a week ago, I read about one of the great feel good stories of 2022. You see, Kaiden Shelton, a 13-year old pitcher for the Texas East Little League, threw a pitch that struck a 12-year old Oklahoma batter, Isaiah Jarvis, in the head, knocking off his helmet. Isaiah fell to the ground, stunned by being struck by the pitch. Those attending the game grew very quiet. Isaiah recovered quickly and trotted to first base; the crowd applauded. Isaiah though saw that the opposing pitcher, Kaiden, was distraught on the mound, sobbing, with his head down. In a touching display of sportsmanship, Isaiah walked to the mound, put his arms around Kaiden, and assured him that “it was okay”. It certainly was okay; okay to have a kind soul respond to an errant pitch with a compassionate hug of forgiveness.

Years ago, I was struck by the story of Steve Blass, a Pirates pitcher, who seemed to always get the best of my Reds. During his ten-year career with Pittsburgh (1964-1973), Blass sported a 103-76 won-loss record and a 3.63 ERA. He was by any measure a very good starting pitcher. After the 1972 season, Blass just simply lost control of his pitches. In 1973 he walked 84 batters in 88 innings, and his ERA ballooned to a woeful 9.85. He retired from baseball shortly thereafter, unable to recover from a condition that has been deemed the “Steve Blass Disease”. Its bottom line is that for no apparent reason, a talented pitcher sometimes loses his ability to throw a pitch accurately.

Other pitchers have suffered through the “Steve Blass Disease”, including some big names like Dontrelle Willis of the Marlins and Mark Wohlers of the Braves. A Cardinals pitcher, Rick Ankiel, had the misfortune of being hit with the syndrome on the national stage, the 2000 MLB playoffs. In Ankiel’s first season in the majors, he came in second to Randy Johnson as the 1999 Rookie of the Year. In his sophomore season he compiled a 11-7 record and 3.50 ERA for St. Louis, earning him the nod to start the NLDS opener against Houston. It was a disaster, as he inexplicably threw five wild pitches in the third inning of the game. In the NLCS against the Mets, Ankiel threw five more wild pitches in the first inning of Game Two. His pitching form never recovered from these incidents. After a few years in the minor leagues, he returned to the Cardinals as an outfielder in 2006. Ankiel became the first player since Babe Ruth to win at least 10 games as a pitcher and hit over 70 home runs.

When the inability to control the direction of thrown baseballs infects an infielder, the illness has another name, the “Steve Sax Syndrome”. Sax played 14 MLB seasons (1981-1994), mostly as a second baseman for the Dodgers. His standout season was 1986, when he placed second in the NL with a .332 batting average and won the Silver Slugger Award. Sax is a five-time NL All-Star, and batted over .300 in three seasons. Yet, his errant throws from the second base position grabbed the media headlines during his career. In 1983, for example, he committed 30 errors, mostly on routine throws to first base. Crazily, in 1989, he recovered fully, when he led the AL in fielding percentage while with the Yankees. Another hard hitting second baseman, Chuck Knoblauch, who played for the Twins, Yankees, and Royals (1991-2002), was afflicted with the syndrome. He recorded 26 throwing errors in 1998. Knoblauch never fully recovered.

I think of these stories often when batters react to pitches which they believe were thrown at them intentionally. Yes, there are circumstances when it’s pretty clear that the intent of a pitch is to respond to a transgression by the opposing pitcher in that game, that season, or even years before. But with that aside, how does a batter really know the difference between a brushback pitch and an errant one? This type of confusion led to an awful scene in June in a series between the Mariners and Angels. In a Saturday evening game, Seattle pitcher Erik Swanson threw an errant pitch that came close to hitting Angels star, Mike Trout. It started a series of revenge pitches over the next two days, the end result being an 18 minute all out on-field fight where six players and two coaches were ejected from the Sunday game and suspended.

While I don’t expect an MLB batter struck by an inside pitch to go out and hug the opposing pitcher, I do expect a little more grace and dignity than was exhibited in that June MLB series. We can all learn a little from Little League play. Just throwing strikes isn’t that easy.

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach