Have you ever heard sports fans going off about soccer games being decided by penalty kicks, screaming "if a baseball game is tied after nine innings, they don't go to home run derby"? Well, in the words of a slightly senile football commentator...not so fast my friends.
I just got home and caught the tail end of the USA/Cuba baseball game and saw the two teams tied at 3-3 in the 10th inning. Then, when the U.S. took the field for the 11th, I noticed two Cuban base runners at first and second base.
Did I fall asleep and miss something? Is this some sort of dream sequence? No, apparently it was neither. Looking to put the final nail in the coffin of Olympic baseball, the good folks at the International Baseball Federation have implemented a new rule for the Beijing games. It reads as such:
In the 11th inning each team's at-bat begins with runners on first and second base, and the managers get to choose who bats first.
Got that? No matter where the team ended up in the 10th, the manager can just magically select who gets to start off an inning. Now they can't just pick two random base runners and a batter; they have to go in order, so if the manager wants the #3 batter to lead off the 11th, he has to put the leadoff man on 2nd base, and the #2 hitter on 1st.
Now on the surface this doesn't seem awful; I find it somewhat similar to the college football overtime setup (which is ok except for the whole taking the special teams aspect out of the game and creating outrageously ridiculous final scores). But, baseball's selling point is that the game keeps going until there's a winner. There's no contrived method to end it quickly, it's supposed to keep going as is. This sort of slaps the traditionalists in the face.
For those of you that want to see how this works in action (as well as see a particularly nasty injury occur to Jayson Nix), click her...oh that's right, I could be hauled off to jail if I link to an Olympic site, picture, or video. Never mind.
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