ROCKLAND and ROCKPORT – Every year on the Midcoast we finish up with basketball in the last week of February or the first week of March, and then there is the long wait for the first signs of spring. After a long and brutal winter, nothing indicates that the season is getting closer than the week of pitchers and catchers warming up at local high schools.

There is something about the sound of ball hitting the leather gloves, the pop of a fastball that stirs the blood of the players in anticipation of the weeks ahead.

Every team has a different method to get players ready, but each team is restricted to who can come in. They are allowed eight pitchers and two catchers and further restrictions limit what they can do.

No bats are allowed, so no batting practice. There is no working on covering first, pick off moves, and it has to be the same 10 players all week. According to the Maine Principals’ Association, “The purpose of the additional week for pitchers and catchers is for conditioning and development of the pitchers’ arms.”

The baseball season schedule from the MPA is as follows

BASEBALL SEASON
March 23, 2015 *Eight Pitchers/Two Catchers Start (same 10 people)
March 30, 2015 First Practice
April 16, 2015 First Countable Game (after 3:00pm)
June 3, 2015 Last Countable Scheduled Game
June 4 – June 10 On-line Sportsmanship Voting
June 9, 2015 Regional Prelim Games
June 11, 2015 Regional Quarter-Final Games
June 13, 2015 Regional Semi-Final Games
June 16-17, 2015 Regional Final Games (MPA site and responsibility)
June 20, 2015 State Championship Games

The Baseball Committee of the MPA has adopted the following rules for pitchers during the season aimed at protecting the arms of these young men from overuse.*

BASEBALL PITCHING RULE — The Baseball Committee has adopted the following pitching limitation rule. Violations of this rule results in the forfeiture of the game for the use of an ineligible player. (Adopted 8/90, Revised 6/96, 6/97)

a. Throwing one pitch constitutes an inning pitched.
b. A day of rest shall be a calendar day (not a part-day 24 hours later).
c. A player who pitches in four or more innings per day may not pitch again until three calendar days have elapsed. (Example - a player pitches four or more innings on May 1st may not pitch again until May 5th).
d. A player may pitch a maximum of ten (10) innings in one game and, having pitched four (4) or more innings in that game, may not pitch in another game until three (3) calendar days have elapsed.
e. A player who pitches in more than one inning and less than four innings may not pitch again until one calendar day has elapsed.
f. A pitcher who pitches in both games of a double header, regardless if it is against the same team or two different teams, shall not pitch more than three innings per game.
g. A player may pitch in one inning on any number of consecutive days.
h. The pitching rule applies to the entire season; pre-season, exhibition, tournament, and all other games. Violation in non-counting games may result in the teams' ineligibility for tournament play. (9/91)

Advisory:
A coach who has the best interest of a player in mind will remove that player once a total of 90-100 pitches have been thrown.

Opening day is not far away, the snow is melting, and the fields should be ready in this area. Some locations around the state may have a little more difficulty, but it almost always works out and in four to six weeks, when the season is underway, we will have forgotten about this winter as we sit and watch the best game there is — baseball!

*(http://www.mpa.cc/images/bulletins/bulletin%20baseball.pdf)

 Ron Hawkes can be reached at hawkesnews@gmail.com