Just Keeping Score...

I know there are going to be a fair amount of you who will not agree with me at all on this particular subject but here is my opinion anyway.

My topic concerns the mercy rule in sports as in the 10 run stoppage of play after a certain amount of innings in baseball. There used to be a 45 point rule in 8-man football but I think they went to a running clock after seeing a couple of scores from Friday night. I think the running clock is actually a pretty good idea. Trust me, I’m not contradicting myself.

I have a personal story on this subject. When I was in Little League a bunch of years ago my team lost a game 31-2. I know some of you must think that was the most brutal thing ever. For me, yes it was embarrassing but it made me focus and vow that a game like that would never happen again. Our team did not prepare very well and several of us went swimming earlier in the day and we certainly had no clue how to shut off the flood gates but we did have to play every inning and get every last out before we could go home.

There were no ice cream cones after a loss. I did get to eat dinner that night but I wasn’t very hungry to say the least.

But I can tell you that I worked on getting better practicing fielding and hitting and throwing the ball a lot more accurately.

I remember watching a Little League game a couple of years ago where the visiting team scored three runs in the top of the inning to go ahead 13-3. One of the fielders said to his coach, “Hey coach the game is over. They’re up by ten!” The coach said, “We still get another chance to bat so stay out there.”

The 10 run rule gives kids the opportunity to throw in the towel without giving themselves another chance to close the gap or even winning the game with a big rally. Kids need to be able to feel what it’s like to lose even when it is a drubbing. I think it’s the parents who have a real problem seeing this happen. I think my dad said something like, “I hope you learned something from that game!”

I’m not sure if I said anything but I knew I did learn a great deal. The next day at school the players from the other team didn’t point and laugh at us or call us losers because they knew it was only one game and the majority of those guys endured a similar outcome. And every game was played out until the last out was recorded.

The only game I played in that didn’t end was an extra-inning game that was stopped in total darkness 15-15.

Life goes on for young people and having that sour feeling after a big loss isn’t the end of the world but it should set the wheels in motion to go out and work hard in order to secure victory by becoming a better athlete. A huge loss isn’t going to keep kids from playing organized sports. I guarantee that I took one or two point losses a lot harder than that 31-2 debacle. But that one certainly changed my attitude quickly.

I’ve also seen some interesting things with soccer where no one keeps score. Really? These kids do know how to count and they can keep score in their heads and still play the game.

I think parents need to let kids play the game and have fun no matter what the score is. Because they can understand better than adults that these games aren’t life and death and won’t make the neighbors think anything less of those kids. Just playing the game is valuable for a lot of different reasons and encouraging them and teaching them fundamentals is very important.

But let them play until the game is over so that they learn how to win graciously and lose respectfully. If we can teach those values kids will have a lot more fun whatever the final score.