The Japanese Don't Believe In Tommy John Surgery

The durability of major league pitchers is a fun debate to have with old baseball guys who long for the days before middle relievers and letting starters accumulate pitch counts until their tendons snapped in half. Those purists would most likely agree with the coach of Kawamato's technical high school, (that's the name of it in the AP story) who let his pitcher go 250 pitches deep and endure a 66-0 drubbing over two innings until he finally asked for mercy:

"At that pace the pitcher would have thrown around 500 pitches in four innings," Kawamoto's coach was quoted as saying. "There was a danger he could get injured."

Yes. He's not sadistic. And the humiliation of being a high school pitcher who gave up 66 runs in two innings should wear off sometime in the next 30 years anyway.

Hey, whatever happened to that Most Extreme Elimination Challenge show on Spike TV anyway?

250 Pitch Count = Totally Cool. 500 Pitch Count = Probably Not Good. [FanIQ]