Injury Epidemic In Youth Baseball

Victor Guadalupe loves baseball. The 12-year-old is a star on the team coached by his father Armando in the Long Beach, Calif. little leagues.

AS CBS News Correspondent Jerry Bowen reports, he's lucky to be on the field.

Last year, after the season was over, a simple game of catch turned painful.

"It felt like the bone separated, like a breaking rubber band or something," says Victor of his growth plate injury.

"When he threw the pitch this little piece of bone snapped off," says surgeon Timothy Gibson.

Gibson inserted a screw in Victor's elbow to repair the break, an injury due to repetitive throwing. It's a problem that's become all too common among young athletes.

"And I will say without question in the last five years the number of overuse injuries in kids has risen dramatically," says Gibson.

So what's going on? Kids are throwing more pitches because they're playing more baseball. Focusing on this one sport year around, sometimes playing for more than one team at the same time.

So, how serious is this overuse problem?

"I think it's an epidemic," says former major league pitcher Tom House.

House chooses to characterize the problem as an epidemic, he says, because he wants people to be scared. House trains pitchers of all ages in the mechanics of healthy throwing.

"Everybody snap their fingers for me,'' he says to a group of young pitchers. "If you're twisting and untwisting your elbow in the time frame, you're going to blow your elbow out."

House warns his students against throwing too much, against overuse.

"You can prepare kids not to get hurt," he says.

In Los Angeles, the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic is in the midst of a long-term study to determine which pitching motions are best for young athletes whose bodies and muscles are still developing.

Back in Long Beach, Victor's grandmother may have an answer. Like a growing number of little league parents, she counts his pitches. Sixty is a recommended limit for a 12-year-old to avoid injuries.

So what's the lesson in all this for coaches and for parents?

"Read the signs," says Victor's father. "Be able to recognize that maybe a little soreness may not be OK."

Victor says kids need to be honest about when they're hurting too.

"You have a long way ahead of you if you have dreams," he says. "If you mess it up here this is just little league. This is just the first stage."

And Victor still has big league dreams.