CALEB DUHAY, a slender 12-year-old wearing braces on his teeth, strode to the pitcher’s mound in Williamsport last August before a crowd of 28,500 and took a deep breath. It was the championship game of the 2008 Little League World Series, and the prospects for his team, from Waipahu, Hawaii, depended largely on him. Duhay wasn’t nervous. According to his dad, Billy Duhay, he had already played this game a thousand times in his head.

Employing his entire repertory — four-seam fastball, two-seam fastball, slider, split-finger fastball, cut fastball and change-up, all taught to him by his dad — the 5-foot-6, 111-pound pitcher had held his opponent, Matamoros, Mexico, to three runs when manager Timo Donahue relieved him in the sixth inning with two outs left in the game. The rules required that Donahue remove him. Caleb Duhay had thrown 89 pitches. After 85 pitches, he was not allowed to face a fresh batter.

Waipahu won, 12-3. At the news conference afterward, Duhay seemed pooped. He should have been. In a space of 10 days, he pitched in four games and threw 288 pitches — all within league rules. To place this in perspective, last month, over the same time period, the Red Sox star Josh Beckett pitched twice and threw 201 pitches; C. C. Sabathia threw 214 in two games for the Yankees.

Duhay wasn’t the only workhorse pitcher in the 2008 Little League World Series. Over eight days, Takumi Ozeki of Tokyo threw 261 pitches. Over four days, Andrew Yacyk of Hagerstown, Md., threw 178 pitches; Ellis Drew of Jefferson, Ind., threw 170; and Chris Beyers from Saudi Arabia threw 161.

I asked Keener in June if he thought Duhay had thrown too many pitches. Keener was adamant. "He pitched less this way than he would have under the old, number-of-innings rule. That’s my answer. I’m not going to debate it. Is he throwing too many pitches? That’s what you’re asking. No."

Billy Duhay was on Keener’s side. "People can criticize all they want," he said by phone from Hawaii, "but what we’re doing is working. I’m a health consultant; I sell nutritional supplements. I know how the body works. Caleb has never had an arm injury, has no soreness. He has never iced his arm. Our next goal is for him to do well in high school, get a college scholarship and hopefully get to the pros. It has always been his dream to pitch in the big leagues."

Nevermind that fully grown and trained athletes almost never throw that much, Billy sells nutritional supplements. He knows how the body works. For reference, down the stretch run last year with Milwaukee, Sabathia threw 434 pitches in 13 days, or 312 in 9 days or 335 in 9 days, depending on how you want to slice it up. 12 year olds, dude.

I can’t believe anyone would do this to a 12 year old. I can’t imagine letting many professionals throw 288 pitches in 10 days. I really don’t know how to govern this, but year around programs in any sport are poor ideas in anycase. I think kids are much better off playing two, three, or four sports to devolp different muscle groups, and skills that can transfer between sports. Ugh.

Whatever. I say ride those horses ’til they drop. 7th grade Pony League flags fly forever.