I caught this a couple days ago. There'll be rule changes with regards to extra-innings Olympic baseball. Apparently baseball is too slow for Olympic standards of sport, and officials aren't crazy about the concept of baseball games capable of continuing forever. What's the silliest, most T-ball way to end an extra-inning baseball game? The IOC came up with these adjustments.
1) From the 11th inning on, teams are allowed to put a runner on first and second base prior to the first pitch.
2) In the 11th inning, teams can start the inning from any point of their batting lineup.
So, come the 11th, I could put my 1-spot hitter on second base, my #2 guy on first, and bring to bat my #3 slugger. Or I could put the 9-spot hitter on second, put the #1 guy on first, and bring to bat my #2 hitter.
At least they're not deciding tie games with a home-run derby.
I suppose I can understand why they'd want to speed up long games. Baseball, as far as I can tell, is the longest Olympic sport. It doesn't take runners three hours to finish a marathon. It doesn't take soccer players three hours to complete a match. It doesn't take sprinters three hours to run the 100m dash. If a baseball game were to go long it could seriously interfere with scheduling, and that could interfere with athletes getting to and from where they need to be, and that could interfere with performance. There's also TV scheduling, which is probably a more important factor in the eyes of those who run the Games.
But on the other hand I don't really care about all that. It'd be nice if everything were to follow the schedules exactly, but if that can't happen then just deal with it. Athletes can wait another hour (or two or three) for the ball game to finish before playing theirs. TV-wise, water polo coverage can wait. It's all pre-recorded anyway for North American viewers, isn't it?
There's also the issue of who gets credited with what stats. When the instant runner on second base comes around to score the winning run the pitcher will get credited with the loss, but will the run be attributed to him? He wasn't responsible for the runners on first and second, but they weren't put there by errors or anything. Unearned? Runner reaches second via IOC ruling? Ghost runner on first? What do you do with your scorecard?
This is the last year for Olympic baseball, at least for a while. It's goofy things like this that'll prevent me from missing it too much. It's the lack of big names, too. Big League teams won't let their star players miss a handful of games to play in the Olympics, and that's completely understandable. The Nippon Professional Baseball league allows their players to join the Japanese National Team, but it's not quite the same, especially when they're playing American minor-league players. By the way, do you know how the Nippon league gets around the issue of too-long baseball? Calling a tie after the 12th inning. It's far more sensible than magically adding base runners.
Will I watch Olympic baseball? If it's being broadcast I will.
Will I root for the Americans? Absolutely. Go, guys I've never heard of!
As an aside, check out the roster for the Canadian National Baseball team. Rheal Cormier... still around? Stubby Clapp, coming out of retirement? Chris Reitsma, who hasn't played a game since March? It should be interesting.
1) From the 11th inning on, teams are allowed to put a runner on first and second base prior to the first pitch.
2) In the 11th inning, teams can start the inning from any point of their batting lineup.
So, come the 11th, I could put my 1-spot hitter on second base, my #2 guy on first, and bring to bat my #3 slugger. Or I could put the 9-spot hitter on second, put the #1 guy on first, and bring to bat my #2 hitter.
At least they're not deciding tie games with a home-run derby.
I suppose I can understand why they'd want to speed up long games. Baseball, as far as I can tell, is the longest Olympic sport. It doesn't take runners three hours to finish a marathon. It doesn't take soccer players three hours to complete a match. It doesn't take sprinters three hours to run the 100m dash. If a baseball game were to go long it could seriously interfere with scheduling, and that could interfere with athletes getting to and from where they need to be, and that could interfere with performance. There's also TV scheduling, which is probably a more important factor in the eyes of those who run the Games.
But on the other hand I don't really care about all that. It'd be nice if everything were to follow the schedules exactly, but if that can't happen then just deal with it. Athletes can wait another hour (or two or three) for the ball game to finish before playing theirs. TV-wise, water polo coverage can wait. It's all pre-recorded anyway for North American viewers, isn't it?
There's also the issue of who gets credited with what stats. When the instant runner on second base comes around to score the winning run the pitcher will get credited with the loss, but will the run be attributed to him? He wasn't responsible for the runners on first and second, but they weren't put there by errors or anything. Unearned? Runner reaches second via IOC ruling? Ghost runner on first? What do you do with your scorecard?
This is the last year for Olympic baseball, at least for a while. It's goofy things like this that'll prevent me from missing it too much. It's the lack of big names, too. Big League teams won't let their star players miss a handful of games to play in the Olympics, and that's completely understandable. The Nippon Professional Baseball league allows their players to join the Japanese National Team, but it's not quite the same, especially when they're playing American minor-league players. By the way, do you know how the Nippon league gets around the issue of too-long baseball? Calling a tie after the 12th inning. It's far more sensible than magically adding base runners.
Will I watch Olympic baseball? If it's being broadcast I will.
Will I root for the Americans? Absolutely. Go, guys I've never heard of!
As an aside, check out the roster for the Canadian National Baseball team. Rheal Cormier... still around? Stubby Clapp, coming out of retirement? Chris Reitsma, who hasn't played a game since March? It should be interesting.
