Kids are playing too much baseball.

Baseball used to be a spring and summer sport, just like it is for professionals, but that is not the case for youth baseball players around the nation today.

This is not a new trend. In fact, it has been going on for years. I was one of the kids playing baseball in the spring, summer, fall, and winter. Baseball was, and still is, my life, but over the years, I have seen the damage this game has left my best friends' bodies in.

The Tommy John surgery has affected more of my friends than I can count on my fingers. It is an atrocity, and the youth baseball associations and youth baseball culture are to blame for leaving our kids on a surgeon's metal slab.

Tommy John is a surgery named after Tommy John, a major league pitcher, who suffered a career ending elbow injury. It was later discovered that the elbow injury was a ruptured Ulnar Collateral Ligament (UCL). Over the years, there have been major strides in the medical field and this once career ending injury can now be fixed.

But has this surgery become a safety net for our kids?

This injury occurs because of the constant strain put on the UCL by throwing a baseball over and over and over again. With that in mind, you could imagine that this mainly affects pitchers.

What is happening today and has been over the past 10 to 15 year is that kids not only play in local little leagues, but on travel teams, showcase teams and scout teams - year round.

Often these kids don't have a pitch count and will pitch day after day for different teams racking up the amount of strain on the elbow. What is sad is that this injury is easy to prevent.

First, as a parent, you should go out of your way to try and get your kid involved in as many different sports as possible. One, because if a kid is playing just a single sport he will eventually get burnt out. Two, because it is healthier and more beneficial to growing kids bones and growth plates. Three, college athletic programs like to see multi-sport athletes cause it shows a kid's athletic diversity.

Second, keep kids' pitch counts, and hold them to that pitch count. As they get older you can expand the amount of pitches, but the important thing is keeping kids arms safe. Also, listen to a kid if his arm hurts and get him off the mound immediately. That one game is not worth a life of pain.

Three, give the kids a break. Professional baseball players take four months off in the off-season and don't touch a baseball. If the professionals need time to recover, a 12-year-old kid does too. The off-season is there for a reason and essential for an athlete stay at peak performance.

I was a baseball player that played year round. I played for travel teams, scout teams, showcase teams, and at my local Little League. I am lucky I haven't had a serious injury, but maybe that's because I stuck to the outfield, stayed off the mound.

Though I haven't experienced the negative affects from "over" playing, it doesn't mean I haven't witnessed the toll it takes on my brothers on the diamond.

This game has ended not only my friends' careers, but countless other baseball players around the world.

It's time to put the kids first.