Pitchers should not be throwing at batters

Yesterday, today or tomorrow, I, personally, find no place in the game of baseball for a pitcher to deliberately throw a pitch with the intent of hitting a batter. My choosing to write this letter at this time was prompted by what was taking place last week between the Philadelphia and Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series but not limited to that.

Sad, but true, was to hear the television analyst/color man make a statement of acceptance for throwing at a hitter, and followed this with where he would target a hitter’s body with a pitch. Sad, but true, as well, was a hitter motioning to the pitcher to throw at his body, not his head.

In yesteryear, 85 mph fastballs were the extreme. Today, 95 mph fastballs are not uncommon, and 100 mph fastballs are not too far in the future. To be remembered, the pitching distance of 60 feet, 6 inches from a 10-inch-high mound is the same today, and apparently it will be the same tomorrow as it was back when.

Not a pretty picture to visualize a hitter getting hit anywhere from the shoulders up by a baseball traveling in excess of 95 miles an hour. Unfortunately, it is going to happen accidentally, and this we can accept, but it is my opinion it should never happen intentionally. In my world, pitchers should pride themselves as being craftsmen, a distinction that doesn’t allow for anything but purposeful pitches in and around the strike zone.

M.D. Wilson

Bangor

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