Shoot-out
The thing I learned today was that in the MLB All-Star game, the catcher is allowed limited re-entry to a game—if the current catcher is injured. Good idea, really, but I never knew that before. Of course, regular season, that’s part of the risk a manager takes, but the All-Star game, where managers want to get in as many players as possible, needs an exception. There is no reason to send a guy unfamiliar with the role in to catch.
The Canada/Switzerland Olympic hockey game went to a shoot-out of February 18, 2010. Canada, to the relief of the Canadians, won in the shoot-out. While I'm okay using the shoot-out in regular season NHL games (I don't think they use it in the playoffs), I think it's way too quirky of a format for important games.
It would be like a tie-breaker in football of kicking field goals--whoever can kick one from furthest away. Or a home run derby in baseball. Or a free-throw contest to break a tie in basketball. It's pitting one player on a team to represent the whole team...in a team sport! It’s a moment where you say “Wait…what?!”
I think in NHL playoffs, they just keep adding overtimes until one team scores. That seems reasonable. In the NFL, they’ll add one overtime in regular season (so the game may end in a tie) or keep adding overtimes until a team scores. I'm okay with sudden-death in over-time, because both teams have a fair chance at scoring. Maybe not so much in football, because your odds go up whether or not you win a coin toss, but with good defense, you should be able to prevent the other team from scoring. In the NCAA football, the rule is that each team gets the ball at the 25-yard line and they play until a winner is declared (at the 3rd OT possession, they must try for a two-point conversion rather than kicking for the extra point). Basketball keeps adding extra five-minute periods until at the end of a period, a team has won. Baseball keeps playing by the regular rules, adding extra innings, until a team wins (not fully sudden death, because of the clearly divided times for scoring; sudden death for the home team when they score, but they have a chance to make it up if the visitor scores). There are rules about how late a baseball game can be played, but it is never* put in the record book as finished until someone wins.
But the shoot-out makes no sense. You’re pitting one player to represent the team, which seems to me to go against the concept of a team. I’m okay with it deciding who gets the extra point in regular season. Fans like knowing who won and who didn’t. In the playoffs, of course, a tie won’t cut it, because you need to know who advances and who doesn’t. I don’t like leaving something like that up to the relative skills of a single player, without any help.
The shoot-out is a fun skills competition. It’s sometimes a fun change of pace during the regular season. But a team’s success in important games shouldn’t stand on the shoulders of one player.
* Unless it’s 2002, when the Commissioner declared the game a tie. Fans were not happy about that. Incidentally, it was not the first All-Star game to end in a tie. In 1961, the All-Star game ended in a tie—however, it ended because of rain, not because they ran out of players.
Timberwolves update: They have a 1-3 record since I last reported. They’re now at 14-45, or a 23.7% winning percentage. The have the worst record in the West, but New Jersey has the worst record in the NBA, 5-52, reportedly on pace for a record year.
Wild Update: The Wild have a 30-27-4 record, for a 49.2% winning percentage. The Wild Finnish representatives (Mikko Koivu, Antii Mietinen, and Niklas Backstrom) will be playing the USA for a chance to go to the Gold Medal game tomorrow at 2, because they beat the Czech team (Martin Havlat and Merek Zidlicky).
The Canada/Switzerland Olympic hockey game went to a shoot-out of February 18, 2010. Canada, to the relief of the Canadians, won in the shoot-out. While I'm okay using the shoot-out in regular season NHL games (I don't think they use it in the playoffs), I think it's way too quirky of a format for important games.
It would be like a tie-breaker in football of kicking field goals--whoever can kick one from furthest away. Or a home run derby in baseball. Or a free-throw contest to break a tie in basketball. It's pitting one player on a team to represent the whole team...in a team sport! It’s a moment where you say “Wait…what?!”
I think in NHL playoffs, they just keep adding overtimes until one team scores. That seems reasonable. In the NFL, they’ll add one overtime in regular season (so the game may end in a tie) or keep adding overtimes until a team scores. I'm okay with sudden-death in over-time, because both teams have a fair chance at scoring. Maybe not so much in football, because your odds go up whether or not you win a coin toss, but with good defense, you should be able to prevent the other team from scoring. In the NCAA football, the rule is that each team gets the ball at the 25-yard line and they play until a winner is declared (at the 3rd OT possession, they must try for a two-point conversion rather than kicking for the extra point). Basketball keeps adding extra five-minute periods until at the end of a period, a team has won. Baseball keeps playing by the regular rules, adding extra innings, until a team wins (not fully sudden death, because of the clearly divided times for scoring; sudden death for the home team when they score, but they have a chance to make it up if the visitor scores). There are rules about how late a baseball game can be played, but it is never* put in the record book as finished until someone wins.
But the shoot-out makes no sense. You’re pitting one player to represent the team, which seems to me to go against the concept of a team. I’m okay with it deciding who gets the extra point in regular season. Fans like knowing who won and who didn’t. In the playoffs, of course, a tie won’t cut it, because you need to know who advances and who doesn’t. I don’t like leaving something like that up to the relative skills of a single player, without any help.
The shoot-out is a fun skills competition. It’s sometimes a fun change of pace during the regular season. But a team’s success in important games shouldn’t stand on the shoulders of one player.
* Unless it’s 2002, when the Commissioner declared the game a tie. Fans were not happy about that. Incidentally, it was not the first All-Star game to end in a tie. In 1961, the All-Star game ended in a tie—however, it ended because of rain, not because they ran out of players.
Timberwolves update: They have a 1-3 record since I last reported. They’re now at 14-45, or a 23.7% winning percentage. The have the worst record in the West, but New Jersey has the worst record in the NBA, 5-52, reportedly on pace for a record year.
Wild Update: The Wild have a 30-27-4 record, for a 49.2% winning percentage. The Wild Finnish representatives (Mikko Koivu, Antii Mietinen, and Niklas Backstrom) will be playing the USA for a chance to go to the Gold Medal game tomorrow at 2, because they beat the Czech team (Martin Havlat and Merek Zidlicky).
Labels: G-g-g-girl, hockey, Olympics
posted by thisisbeth | 8:57 AM
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