By Josh:
Yesterday at the Little League Softball World Series a bit of controversy entered the tournament. The West Regional champion from the state of Washington intentionally lost a game. A lot of people felt it was done because they wanted to eliminate a team from making the semi-finals that they felt was their hardest challenger. Now at first glance the initial thought is disqualify the team and get them out of the tournament.
However, there is more to this story. If you look over the tie breaker rules that Little League uses the West team that was 3-0 in pool play before the game was at risk of not being 1st or 2nd in their pool, which is what is required to move to the semi-finals. By losing and not scoring any runs they ‘locked up’ a spot as one of the top two teams. Had they played all out and lost but scored 2 runs they would have been dropped to 3rd place.
So because of tie breaker rules it was better for Washington to not score and lose, then to score and lose. This is the initial cause of everything that happened yesterday.
So do I think the coaches for the Washington team did something that goes against the spirit of the game and the rules, yes. Do I think they were doing what was in the best interest of their players….I don’t know.
This is a really slippery slope here. As a player I would rather play in a semifinal game, played on ESPN2, with a chance to win the World Series than play for 5th place, that’s for sure. Also as a player I want to go out and whoop every team I face to make a statement.
The end ruling by Little League was that the West and Central had to play in a one game playoff to see who would get 2nd in their pool. A lot of people were mad that this was the ruling, but honestly I think it was the right one after hearing the facts. Little League rules put the Washington team in a bad situation and although I think the Washington coaches made things worse by not trying to win I have to lay blame on Little League first. The tie breaker rules rewarded them to not score. I honestly think Tie Breakers should be based on how many runs you score. That way teams are encouraged to score and play to win.
Imagine if you were the coach for Washington and your team went out and played a great game but lost 8-7. You would then have to tell your girls that they went 3-1 in pool play did great but because of tie-breaker rules they would take 3rd. But had they not scored any runs and lost they would have taken 2nd and been playing on ESPN2 for a chance to win the World Series. Bad rules make for ugly decisions by coaches to make sure their team has a chance to play for a championship.
The one positive out of this is the girls on the Washington team were not punished for mistakes made by their coaches and by Little League. There is enough blame to go around but it shouldn’t be focused on the kids.