Spare a thought for this poor pitcher's arm, and indeed his era.
There is a danger I will eat a pizza in the next month too but I don't go around issuing quotes about it, Kawamoto's baseball coach, if indeed he is still a coach after leaving a high school kid in for 250 pitches, wins the 2008 award for most obvious comment, and we're only in April!
The mind really boggles on this one. At what stage did the coach decide 'You know what, I think we better take him out!'. The starter had given up 26 runs in the first inning and 40 in the second. Maybe the coach was related to Art Shell, the former Oakland Raiders coach, famous for appearing to be asleep during games. Other than Grady Little I can not think of any coach who would leave a pitcher in after a 26 run first.
What did he say to the pitcher in the middle of the inning? 'Good job'? ''Keep throwing strikes'?
How on earth is the poor kid who pitched ever going to recover from that one? I guess it's all downhill from here for him, a 10 run outing would be a small victory.
In a final twist, the invoking of the mercy rule meant that the score of the game in question will go down in history as, 9-0! Some poor Shunshukan high school (the opposition) kid went home and told Momma and Poppa he drove in 27 runs only to find out they don't count for anything after all!
Incidentally, the MLB record for most runs scored in an inning by one team is 18, in 1883
Almost unbelievably the Kawamoto Technical High School coach had left the same pitcher hung out to dry for every single one of the 66 runs. 1.1 innings led to 250 pitches. Can you imagine Rich Harden after 250 pitches? His arm would simply fall off. The beleaguered coach said;
TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese high school pleaded for a regional game to be abandoned after surrendering 66 runs in less than two innings, local media reported on Thursday.
The coach of Kawamoto technical high school threw in the towel to spare his pitcher's arm with his team losing 66-0 with just one batter out in the bottom of the second.
"At that pace the pitcher would have thrown around 500 pitches in four innings, there was a danger he could get injured."
There is a danger I will eat a pizza in the next month too but I don't go around issuing quotes about it, Kawamoto's baseball coach, if indeed he is still a coach after leaving a high school kid in for 250 pitches, wins the 2008 award for most obvious comment, and we're only in April!
The mind really boggles on this one. At what stage did the coach decide 'You know what, I think we better take him out!'. The starter had given up 26 runs in the first inning and 40 in the second. Maybe the coach was related to Art Shell, the former Oakland Raiders coach, famous for appearing to be asleep during games. Other than Grady Little I can not think of any coach who would leave a pitcher in after a 26 run first.
What did he say to the pitcher in the middle of the inning? 'Good job'? ''Keep throwing strikes'?
How on earth is the poor kid who pitched ever going to recover from that one? I guess it's all downhill from here for him, a 10 run outing would be a small victory.
In a final twist, the invoking of the mercy rule meant that the score of the game in question will go down in history as, 9-0! Some poor Shunshukan high school (the opposition) kid went home and told Momma and Poppa he drove in 27 runs only to find out they don't count for anything after all!
Incidentally, the MLB record for most runs scored in an inning by one team is 18, in 1883
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