Just got back from scouting the latest Chinese Taipei/Brother Elephants matchup in Taichung. The Elephants beat the Olympic squad 7-6. Or something. It was an exciting 6-6 game going into the 10th, dramatic comebacks, great plays at the plate. Until the extra frames.
I could tell you about the fun atmosphere, lively crowds. I could tell you that future big league CF Lin Che Hsuan made a riiiiiiiidiculous throw from centerfield to save the game in the bottom of the 9th that sent chills down your spine. I could write about how Ni Fu-Te’s pitches dance past left-handed bats or how hard Lo Chia-Jen threw.
Instead, it’s time to rant about this new rule. I got to witness a preview of this new extra-innings start with men on base mockery of the sport rule today. The game went to extra frames, and Chinese Taipei had two runners on with no one yet to come to the plate. Walk, bases loaded no outs. Somehow the combination of hitters (including a somewhat disappointing Lo Kuo-Hui) fail to drive in the run.
The mighty Brother Elephants sans-their-one-kind-of-good-hitter lineup comes up bottom ten. Two men on. They score quickly. 9 innings of well played, exciting baseball all goes to shite because of this new rule. All I can say is that I encourage any managers of teams in competitve games to simply refuse to field their lineup after the 10th inning rather than participate in this nonsense. It was one thing to read about it in the paper but another to watch it and see first how it makes a mockery of the sport.
If I’m the manager of the Japanese or Korean team with a roster full of pros taking time off from their clubs and risking injury to be in the Olympics, playing for my country, and a game is decided by this mockery of the game new rule, I flip out beyond repair.
22 responses so far ↓
1 bigdaub // Aug 6, 2008 at 10:36 pm
amen, the rule stinks. a perfectly good game ruined.
2 Shinsano // Aug 7, 2008 at 8:22 am
Damn, I was hoping I’d see the new rule in action with Cuba vs. Korea.
So did Brother Elephants send out their two fastest runners or just the top two guys in the lineup. How did the strategy work?
I was thinking last night….Korea is going to be pretty set if it ends up in the tiebreaker rule…with Lee Jeong-wook and Lee Yeong-gyu at the top and Lee Seung-yeop at the plate.
3 Kay // Aug 7, 2008 at 3:54 pm
I think you guys are getting too wound up on this. It’s not a great rule but games change…sometimes for the better. I dont see this rule as something that will affect results that much. I think if a team loses by the rule they won’t be happy but they won’t feel cheated. It’s a fair rule. It doesn’t play to any strength for anyone.
4 Diborane // Aug 7, 2008 at 3:56 pm
First, the new rule for the Olympics starts in the eleventh inning since most extra inning games end in the tenth!
Let me get this straight: no outs, two men on, then bases loaded and 3 outs. Next team up scores with two men on. The rule has a problem?
5 baekgom84 // Aug 7, 2008 at 6:09 pm
This rule is as stupid as when the MLS had those NHL-style shootouts at the end of every drawn game. I can see what they were trying to do, but it’s just so ridiculously over-the-top. No restraint used whatsoever!
6 jackson // Aug 7, 2008 at 6:51 pm
Once you have this rule it’s no longer baseball. It’s a variation of baseball.
You wouldn’t ask olympic swimmers to start from 3/4 of the way down the lane to make the sport more interesting, would you?
Obviously the rule didn’t determine the outcome but that’s not the point. There’s no way games of any kind of importance should be decided like this. It’s one thing if it’s a scrimmage (like yesterday) but having a big game on the line, it’s ridiculous.
7 Shinsano // Aug 7, 2008 at 7:40 pm
I actually softened a little bit after I listened to that cricket story in the Economist I posted. They took a five day game and cut it down to 3 hours. THAT’S a dramatic switch.
It’s still a dumbass rule though.
8 bigdaub // Aug 7, 2008 at 10:29 pm
>most extra inning games end in the tenth
uh, where did you get this from? i’ve been watching baseball my whole f’n life and i can’t agree with it from what i’ve observed. in fact, i will say most extra inning games don’t end in the tenth.
sorry kay and diborane, i strongly disagree with you and i think that anyone who thinks that this rule is acceptable should find another sport to follow.
9 jackson // Aug 7, 2008 at 11:17 pm
It’s good to have different viewpoints on here…it helps us all understand the game we love better.
thanks to all our contributors to the discussion…
10 John M // Aug 8, 2008 at 3:34 am
Hi, guys. You know, I don’t like this rule, either, but the IBAF didn’t just do it out of thin air. One of the reasons baseball is gone after this year is the indeterminate length of the games. The IOC has a real problem with that–with the length in general, too, but that’s something they’ll live with. It screws up television scheduling or at the least makes it uncertain. The TV guys who spend billions to get the rights to the Olympics don’t like that, I guess.
There are other, bigger problems that got us knocked out of the Games in 2012, but this was the only one that could be ’solved’ right away. The IBAF is priming the pump for the reinstatement campaign, already in progress.
What’s worse than the rule is the timing. If this was to be addressed, it would have been better to do it months ago instead of at the last minute. But you know that.
11 Shinsano // Aug 8, 2008 at 9:09 am
I still have a hard time understanding how the IOC waited to July to bitch about the length for TV. They know how long baseball games are. Was it a matter of doing a final review of the schedule and saying… “wow, this baseball stuff takes up too much time….”?
I’m getting the impression…just from things I’m reading in the news and comments people are making…. that baseball will be back after 2012 with a minimal effort. The thought even crossed my mind that the idea of having baseball as an olympic event when cricket and golf aren’t, is tough for Brits to swallow. As I understand it they’re trying to sort out the problem of admitting cricket in the Twenty20 version or the traditional way.
Probably just as well…the London olympics are either going to be a security lockdown that will make China seem like child’s play, or a bombfest people won’t want to be around.
12 Kay // Aug 8, 2008 at 5:53 pm
“Once you have this rule it’s no longer baseball. It’s a variation of baseball.”
So then you must feel this way about the DH too, right? What you’re watching — if you watch the American league — is some bastardized version of baseball right? You didn’t just learn to accept it as part of the game right?
If you guys think baseball will be the same game it is now 10-15 years later you’re crazy. It will change/evolve and itll still be fun to watch. Don’t get your panties all up in a bundle.
13 jackson // Aug 8, 2008 at 9:01 pm
You’re right. I’m a cranky old fart. Out with the old, in with the new. I’d say some ramps in right field, maybe a windmill that the ball goes through, and possibly releasing an angry caged animal at random times during the game would be an improvement on the sport.
Sorry, Kay, but the rules of baseball will be the same in 10-15 years.
And my panties are nice, freshly ironed, and neatly folded in a drawer thank you.
14 bigdaub // Aug 8, 2008 at 11:23 pm
they’ve got a ‘ramp’ and something that resembles a windmill already. it’s at minute maid park in houston. i can’t wait for some poor soul (preferably an astro) to run head on into the flagpole or take a face plant running up that hill and ends up on the 60-day dl so that the idiots who thought it would be cool to turn the center field into an obstacle course will finally come to their senses and remove the damn hill and flagpole from the field.
and yes kay, the dh is the reason that i like the nl that much more than the al.
the game shouldn’t be about pleasing the networks. there are other ways to keep the game short. enforce the 12 second rule. shorten the lag time between innings. put a time restriction on the time the batter can spend outside of the batter’s box. there are ways.
15 John M // Aug 9, 2008 at 2:21 am
Aaron–
The IOC didn’t just notice the length of games, it was a contributing reason for why baseball got axed for 2012. That’s been known since the axe fell, in fact. So why wait until know to address that particular concern? Um, beats me.
As for the Games being about ‘pleasing the networks’, all I an say is….ah, idealism. I love it. Unfortunately, the Olympics are all about money. That’s why they keep having them. The IOC gets a pile of dough, the worldwide sport organizations get a pile of dough, the networks get a pile of advertising dough (they hope), the host country and city spend a pile of dough but plan on getting even more in return….
TV rights are a huge reason the Olympics are held, at all. No money, no motivation to put on this bloated spectacle every two years. I mean, synchronized swimming? Come on.
16 Simon Currie // Aug 9, 2008 at 2:50 am
Olympic baseball is huge in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Cuba. The US has an interesting team with some major league ready prospects, but I doubt the American public pays much attention to the tournament. So, why the need to shorten games for TV when there’s only limited global coverage anyways? Just another excuse to kick baseball off the Olympics I guess. If Twenty20 Cricket does eventually get into the Olympics at the expense of baseball, then it will reek completely of Euro(UK)centricism and new Indian money.
17 bigdaub // Aug 9, 2008 at 3:47 am
i don’t care if baseball is part of olympics or not. i don’t think it should be there to start with since no one really plays the game outside of north america and eastern asia.
18 FC MERKLE // Aug 9, 2008 at 6:20 am
Obviously bigdaub knows less about baseball than even I do. I thought this was a baseball blog pretty much. If you don’t care about Olympic baseball, you should not even bother visiting for the most part. Outside of Canada, USA and Mexico (North America) baseball is played with and even greater passion than you or I could imagine. Did you miss the WBC? Seems you must have or you need a geography lesson.
I have been reading alot about baseball and its history in recent years and I am fascinated by it. A game without time constraints is always more exciting for those people with patience.
19 Shinsano // Aug 9, 2008 at 8:52 am
The basic rules of baseball will be the same. There might be a few more things like the DH, the minature golf course in Houston, and the new instant replay rule, but the core will be the same.
I would say this kind of rule is about on the level as the DH rule. It changes the game somewhat, but isn’t a killer.
At any rate, real baseball leagues won’t be implementing it anytime soon. Don’t think the WBC will either.
20 bigdaub // Aug 9, 2008 at 1:06 pm
sorry, my bad. baseball is also played in latin america.
tell me where else in the world is baseball played with “even greater passion than you or I could imagine”. europe? china?
21 Richard // Aug 15, 2008 at 9:54 am
Uh, no, this is an insanely stupid rule that has a much bigger effect than the DH. The DH changed the game, but baseball strategy stayed pretty much the same. This change make the game from the 11th on some wack version of original baseball. What I don’t understand is why they don’t just allow ties in the group stages. Then only 3 games could have a time limit issue in the Olympics.
22 Simon Currie // Aug 15, 2008 at 10:37 am
Then China would’ve tied Korea yesterday because they had played enough innings and no one had scored when the game was suspended due to the thunderstorm! Wow, that would’ve been a shocker for Korea. Luckily for them, the game will resume on another day (17th, the off day?)
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