It's already known that baseball and softball are being wiped out of the Olympics after the current games end next month.
Here's the latest in Olympic-baseball stupidity courtesy of an LA Times blog:
Extra innings during Beijing Olympic baseball games will have something extra.
The rules will stay the same for the first 10 innings, but if a contest stretches into an 11th inning, each team would begin its next at-bat with runners on first and second. Managers also will be allowed to start the 11th at any point in their batting order.
Here's how it would work, according to the Associated Press: A manager who chooses to lead off the 11th with the club's No. 3 hitter would have to put the No. 1 batter on second base and the No. 2 hitter on first. If there's a 12th inning, it would begin wherever the previous lineup left off -- again with two batters on base and one at the plate.
The changes announced Friday by the International Baseball Federation will go into effect in time for the Beijing Games that begin on Aug. 8.
The changes were made to save time, said federation President Harvey Schiller: "We must demonstrate to the International Olympic Committee [that] not only does our game belong alongside the other great sports of the world, but our sport is manageable from a television and operational standpoint.”
AP reports that USA Baseball executive director Paul Seiler initially opposed the change, but he gradually came around.
"The traditionalist in me says, 'no way,' " Seiler said. "But you know, in the Olympics, where you have [a] finite amount of time to get your program finished [and] the early game goes 15, 16, 17 innings, then what does that do? Television is affected, transportation is affected — a lot of logistical things that we don’t have to worry about on a Friday night in Durham. It’s a domino" effect.
In-depth look at a thorny subject...
13 years ago
2 comments:
Why don't they settle it with a home run derby after the ninth inning? Or maybe just a coin flip?
Leave it to the IOC to ruin a great game...
What's even stupider, if you read the fine print, is the manager can pick which place in the order to start the inning. You can send up your No. 3 hitter first every inning after that point.
THAT is what makes baseball unique among team sports. The Cleveland Cavaliers can try to get Lebron James every shot in a game. USC can give Joe McKnight every carry on offense, the Penguins can try to arrange so Sidney Crosby has the puck in every key situation.
But in baseball, you only get to bat every time its your turn. You can't have runners on 2nd and 3rd with two out and say 'wait, we want Alex Rodriguez to come up and hit right now!"
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