YES Network.com

So much for treating pitchers like China dolls, coddling them, babying them.

Maybe what baseball needs is a return to the good, old days, when men were men and pitchers pitched.

Maybe what baseball needs is another Kaat like Jim, another John like Tommy, another Feller like Bob, another Young-un like Cy, another Wynn-er like Early.

The idea of Joba Rules was to protect that valuable arm, avoid overuse, prevent it from breaking down. The idea was a bust. Joba now resides on the disabled list, unable to pitch for 15 days, maybe for the remainder of the season.

Was it overwork that doomed him? It's difficult to lend credence to that theory with a guy who, in two years as a pro, appeared in only 69 games and pitched only 201 and a third innings. A more credible theory is that Chamberlain's woes stem not from pitching too much, but from not pitching enough.

The arm is a muscle and the iron man pitchers of the past (see accompanying charts) believed that you strengthen a muscle by working it, not resting it. Iron men like Jim Kaat threw every day to strengthen that muscle. Kaat's credo was: "The arm will rust out before it wears out."

It's interesting to note that in baseball's modern era (since 1903), the player who played the most seasons, 27, was a pitcher, Nolan Ryan. Of the six players with the most seasons, four were pitchers. Of the 15 players with the most seasons, nine were pitchers. And of the 29 players with the most seasons, 15 were pitchers.

Don't get the idea that those Iron Men were all knuckleballers, soft tossers or relievers. The list includes men who throw as hard as, or harder than, Chamberlain, fireballers like Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver, Bob Gibson, Walter Johnson, Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens, Bob Feller and Warren Spahn.

And then along came pitch counts and out went complete games, 300-win and 3,000-inning careers.

One reason advanced for the advent of pitch counts is the arrival of long-term, multi-million dollar contracts, bringing forth agents and owners determined to protect their investments.

But pitching less also brings fewer rewards.

Wouldn't it serve those agents and owners better if their investments pitched more and produced more?