Actually, what to do is obvious, but youth baseball coaches and parents are too concerned about Lil' Johnny's big pay day or about winning the BIG GAME no one will remember in 10 years, to give a crap about his weak little arm. When your 13-year-old has five workable pitches and throws more innings a week than C.C. Sabathia, that's a problem.

Andrews explains to The New York Times Magazine that he's been fighting this issue for years, but no one seems to care. There are dozens of little leagues and interscholastic leagues and other amateur programs and none of them can agree on pitch or innings limits that make any kind of sense. And without those limits, coaches will keep sending their pitchers out there until their arms fall off. That's why Andrews says there's an "epidemic" of torn ligaments and busted shoulders.

Reading about what some of these kids go through boggles the mind. One kid pitches 10 months a year for four different teams. Caleb Duhay (pictured), a 12-year-old in last year's Little League World Series, pitched four games in 10 days and threw 288 pitches—all of them high-pressure, tournament throws. In a 10 day-span last month, Josh Beckett threw 201 and C.C. Sabathia threw 214, and they only had two starts each. Those guys are also highly paid major leaguers.

Another kid, Alden Manning, pitched a complete game with a sore forearm and then missed an entire year with Tommy John surgery. His dad and his coach thought they were looking out for him, but since they aren't orthopedic surgeons they apparently had no clue what they were doing to him. Kids throw more pitches, harder and in more pressure-packed situations then ever before, and the only people benefiting are doctors with knives.

But I've got a radical solution. Are you ready for it? Listen up: When a kid's arm is sore ... don't let him pitch. If he's already in the game and he gets tired ... take him out. I know this is a complicated procedure—even a lot of major and minor league managers don't seem to grasp it, but letting an injured pitcher pitch won't suddenly make him not injured. Call me crazy, but it just might work.

Arms-Control Breakdown [NY Times]

P.S. Interesting bit of trivia from the article—James Andrews was the 1963 SEC Champion in the pole vault. That must explain his fascination with things that bend.

Halliday tossed the final pitch that clinched the state title, which resulted in the requisite joyful pile-up on the mound. No his bones were not crushed by the weight of his teammates — that occurred soon after he attempted a more personal celebration with his teammate, Kyle Beade. Chest bump success begets leg bone failure. Halliday, who had been ecstatic just a few seconds before it happened, quickly shifted to dude-like astonishment:

"I came out of the pile and was running around with teammates. I was back behind the mound, around second base and I did a chest bump with Kyle. I must have landed wrong when I came down. Right away, I heard a crack. I looked over and said, ‘Kyle, I broke my leg.' He said, ‘No way, dude,' and I just said, ‘Kyle, I broke my leg!' ''

Dude, he broke his leg. That's when things became a bit chaotic, almost ruining Auburn's triumphant victory.

"When they saw it, people started running away, trying not to puke,'' said the pitcher. "My coaches surrounded me and were holding my hand and stuff. My dad and little brother and uncle came onto the field because they thought I'd had a heart attack or something. They were kind of happy it was only a broken leg.''

Halliday was carted off the field on a stretcher and rushed to emergency room for surgery. However, as you can tell in the photo above, he did not let his mangled limb completely ruin the moment for him.

Fractured Fairy Tale [Boston Globe]

No, not the players. The players were cool. The whole audience was ejected. It's the kind of unprecedented tomfoolery that can happen only in West Burlington, Iowa.

Up 11-3, Winfield-Mount Union's manager Scott McCarty was fuming over a fair-foul call in the fifth inning. One thing led to another, people said words they weren't proud of, and umpire Don Briggs decided to toss the entire cranky crowd of about 100. When people wouldn't leave, he called the police to assist in the dispersal of the whinin' Iowans.

"I know it sounds like I'm the bad guy - but it was the crowd," Briggs said. "If I got the control to ask one person to leave, I feel like I can ask them all to leave."

Remember, Winfield-Mount Union was up 11-3 at this point.

After a long delay, the superintendent made a housecall to the ballpark and convinced the umpire to ease up, man, it's just a baseball game. After the delay, West Burlington made a fantastic two-inning rally, scoring nine runs to win 12-11.

So let this be your lesson, Scott McCarty. When you have a comfortable lead, don't change the complexion of the game by arguing a call with an eight-run lead, cause a community stir that brings the freakin' superintendent to the premises, then have your team watch the instructional video Poppin' Flies With Luis Castillo.

High school umpire tells entire crowd: You're out! [Des Moines Register]

Minnesota is obviously lacking in quality relief pitching, because no one this side of Dusty Baker would find it prudent to let his starter throw 200+ pitches. The guys actually would have thrown more, but there are laws against child abuse. Conners was pulled in the 12th, because state rules prevent anyone from pitching more than 14 innings in three days, and he had thrown three in the opening round game.

By the same rule, Anderson would not have been allowed to go back out for the 14th inning—so he went ahead and hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 13th. I guess he was playing the game by himself.

Warroad pitcher throws 13 innings, then homers for win [Star-Tribune]
Tuesday (pitch counts) edition: Wha' Happened? [Randball]

Yes, Patrick Schuster—a senior at Mitchell High School in New Port Richey, Florida—threw his fourth straight no-hitter last night, striking out 17 in 5-0 win. He's now 8-0 on the season with a 0.73 ERA and has whiffed 60 batters in the four starts. Oh, yes. The Beef O'Brady's must have tasted so sweet last night!

The four no-hitters breaks the Florida state record, but is actually two shy of the national record held by two different pitchers. Also, I've just been told that high school games are only seven innings, so his "feat" is really not that hard at all.

Schuster throws 4th straight no-hitter [WTSP]
Mitchell's Schuster hurling at history [TB Online]
Local prep pitcher throws fourth straight no-hitter [Bay News 9]
No-No-No-No-No-No-No-No [Online Sports Guys]

That unmistakable smell of sulfur in the air is probably Scott Boras lurking nearby.

Schuster threw no-hitter No. 3 on Monday against Clearwater Central Catholic, striking out 16. He hit the game's leadoff hitter, and only had two other baserunners, both on infield errors. On April 8 he had 10 strikeouts in a no-hitter against River Ridge, and had 17 Ks on April 3 vs. Land O' Lakes.

"It's great," Schuster said by cell phone from a local Beef O'Brady's, his typical postgame hangout. "I can't think of a more perfect time for this. There were 15-20 scouts there and most of them were bosses of guys watching me. I'm having a blast right now."

Schuster, a left-hander, is headed to the University of Florida. He goes for no-hitter No. 4 on Monday. How is ESPN not televising this?

But before you get too excited, please note that the previous Florida high schooler to throw three straight no hitters — Gonzalez Tate's Ben Webb in 1985 — ended up being drafted by the Pirates, where he never rose above Class AA.

Schuster Unhittable Again [The Suncoast News]
Schuster Tosses Third Consecutive No-Hitter [St. Petersburg Times]

Cody Gabella is a junior baseball player at Notre Dame High School in Burlington, Iowa, but his dad is also the manager for the Class A Burlington Bees. The Bees had an exhibition game against Southeastern Community College on Tuesday, and since it was an exhibition in the Midwest League against a junior college team, the older Gabella probably figured no one would give a crap and he let his son join the team for one game. Guess what? He got two plate appearances, so the Iowa HS Athletic Association has banned him for the entire season.

The funny thing is, if the game had been played against other minor leaguers he might have even gotten away with it—but the rule specifically states that players can't train, practice or play, with or against college students at any level. So yeah, he should have known the rule, but it was just one game so who really cares? His high school team's mascot is the Nikes. Seriously, the Notre Dame Nikes. But good job protecting the kid from the corrupting influences of pro sports.

IHSAA: Gabella out for junior season [The Hawk Eye]

The kid, Matt Hill, was supposed to walk on at Gordon College. Not any more.

Friend said he talked with McClanahan and Gordon College president Lawrence Weill in hopes of changing their minds. "The incident is so totally out of character for this kid, but the penalty has taken away his chance to play baseball for the college of his choice," Friend said. "It bothers the family that this one pitch has taken on a life of itself and overshadowed other aspects of people's lives and that family unit. I don't think anyone ever imagined that this was going to get on MSNBC and have 82,000 hits on YouTube.I know that the family is very low-key, humble group of people, and it's been very hard on them."

Oh, and the pitcher's brother was drafted. We still can't believe this doesn't happen all the time.

Umpire Face Beaning Update [Walk Off Walk]

We don't see how any reasonable person could not see it as obviously intentional, but they've gotta investigate anyway.

"It looks bad, and most people who look at it come away with that conclusion," [school principal David] Friend said. "But there have been wacky things that have happened in baseball and high schools, and all I'm going to conclude is that it does need to be investigated. If we're found to be at fault, we'll effectively deal with the situation."

Friend said he had interviewed his baseball coaches today and concluded they were not to blame. Friend said he had not finished talking to the players.

The catcher and pitcher say it was a sign mixup. The only way that was a sign mixup is if the catcher had given the sign to "remain standing and catch the ball."

Best thing about this: There was a runner on second, who advanced.

Incoming: Conspiracy To Drill High School Ump In Face? [Walk Off Walk]