That wacky tie-breaker in international baseball

by Gray on Aug 15, 2008 9:13 AM EDT

The United States team lost to Cuba in 11 innings. Since they were tied after ten, the crazy tiebreaker kicked in: each team starts with men on first and second, choosing where in the lineup to start hitting.

What amazes me is that everyone seems to choose to bunt the runners over. The Cuba team did this; both then scored on a single. Davey Johnson did the same thing with the U.S. team, even after the first guy to try bunting was injured. But keep in mind: they sent out the #2 hitter in the lineup...to bunt.

One runner scored on a sac fly, then the last runner was stranded when the next batter fouled out.

We all know what Dusty (Baker) would do in this situation. But would any MLB manager go against this conventional "wisdom" and let all three batters hit?

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TLR would

Just to make my head implode from the dizzying contradiction. He’s a fucking sadist.

Overserved and underwhelmed.

by Pops Daniels on Aug 15, 2008 9:22 AM EDT 0 recs

wacky tiebreaker

i personally think it is cool as heck. this should be employed in All-Star games.

and yes, we all know what Dusty would do. he would blame the Beijing heat for sapping the strength from all his white ballplayers while the Cubans wouldnt break a sweat.

by Charlie Scrabbles on Aug 15, 2008 9:46 AM EDT 0 recs

Agreed about All-Star games

It makes more sense than a Home Run Derby.

by Brendanukkah on Aug 15, 2008 10:04 AM EDT up 0 recs

Oh, that's a great idea.

I would have much rather seen the ASG end like this than like it actually did.

I think we overmeet as a society.

by Gray on Aug 15, 2008 11:28 AM EDT up 0 recs

“Any time you’re in a completely new and unprecedented tie-breaker, you’ve got to bo by the book in that situation,” continued a disappointed Baker. “I learned that coming up with the Dodgers.”

Kentuck Arts Festival: October 18th.
Details at Sinful Savage Tigers

by Man Mountain on Aug 15, 2008 10:31 AM EDT up 0 recs

Dusty always

boes by the book.

I think we overmeet as a society.

by Gray on Aug 15, 2008 11:27 AM EDT up 0 recs

...or was it from Hank Aaron?

by Charlie Scrabbles on Aug 15, 2008 11:27 AM EDT up 0 recs

It's been a while since I've seen the expected runs matrix,

but isn’t that the only situation where you’re expected to score more runs? I mean, the jump from runners on 1st & 2nd w/ 0 out to runners on 2nd & 3rd w/ 1 out? That’s assuming the sacrifice is successful, of course.

by sonant1 on Aug 15, 2008 2:04 PM EDT 0 recs

I always speak too soon.

The only matrix I can find, from 2005, shows a drop from 1.44 to 1.41. I’ll be over there in the corner with my foot in my mouth.

by sonant1 on Aug 15, 2008 2:21 PM EDT up 0 recs

The matrix could look different for the Olympics

Hard to say how different without knowing anything about the teams or parks.

by ken on Aug 15, 2008 2:30 PM EDT up 0 recs

well

Your expectation of scoring at least one run does increase slightly in that example, so if you’re tied in the bottom of the ninth it is probably a good move. However since the other team is also going to start with two men on and no outs I have to think you’re better off trying to score multiple runs.

by Red Menace on Aug 15, 2008 2:31 PM EDT up 0 recs

Right, the mean is important here...

and it seems like the usual argument is that it increases the likelihood of scoring one run.

I would really like to see them flip a coin for each base each inning to determine whether it’s occupied. Sure, there’s a 1/8 chance that nothing would be occupied, but there’s also a 1/8 chance that the bases would be loaded, and you could get interesting combinations like first and third, or just third, or whatever. And more strategy would be involved…

I think we overmeet as a society.

by Gray on Aug 15, 2008 2:38 PM EDT up 0 recs

little fleas

All this talk over the matrix reminds me of Earl Weaver’s classic take on small ball. BTTF link to this the other day to celebrate the man’s 78th birthday. I’d never heard the part where he advises a poor woman who wanted to know when to plant tomatoes.
(audio really NSFC)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YKxf3OkpJc

by Red Menace on Aug 15, 2008 2:46 PM EDT up 0 recs

What's BTTF?

And is that thing real?

I think we overmeet as a society.

by Gray on Aug 15, 2008 3:51 PM EDT up 0 recs

Oh, the Inter Net helps me there.

A Baltimore Sun columnist looked into it, and found:

Yesterday, when Marr finished his morning show on WCBM-AM, he called me – "Let me tell you how it happened … " – and popped the balloon.

“It never actually aired,” Marr said. “It was never meant to air.”

Marr said it was a prank. Marr and Weaver were pre-recording a segment from Seattle in 1982, when the pair flubbed a take of the Manager’s Corner. They got to laughing and decided to record an entire fake segment and send it back to the station engineer as a joke.

The dialogue was all off-the-cuff and off-the-air. Weaver didn’t have to try very hard to act like an old cuss. The engineer, of course, got a kick out of it, and the listeners heard a different, sanitized version of the segment before Sunday’s ballgame.

The prank tape didn’t die, though. It was kicked around Baltimore on audiocassette for years, and naturally, when YouTube was born, colorful Weaver made the jump into the digital age.

“It’s been all around the world by now,” Marr said. “Just grown like ivy.”

So, yes, it was Earl Weaver, unscripted and uncensored. But it was stolen from a bottom drawer somewhere, not stripped from the airwaves.

“And now, as they say, you know the rest of the story,” Marr says.

I think we overmeet as a society.

by Gray on Aug 15, 2008 3:57 PM EDT up 0 recs

The tapes really did have an active life before the internet

I first heard it on a cassette that this hipster kid at camp had in 1994. His tape had a bunch of other stuff, but the only other thing I can really remember was some of the Casey Kasem rants. I recall I desperately wanted to copy it, but he wouldn’t let me. I was heartbroken because I thought I would never, ever hear that stuff again.

/up hill both ways

Kentuck Arts Festival: October 18th.
Details at Sinful Savage Tigers

by Man Mountain on Aug 15, 2008 5:16 PM EDT up 0 recs

"This is fucking ponderous, man!"

2008 Cincinnati Reds motto?

Also Snuggles the dog was from Cincinnati. Huh.

by Brendanukkah on Aug 15, 2008 5:22 PM EDT up 0 recs

get them big cocksuckers that can hit the fuckin ball out of the ballpark and you cant make any goddamn mistake

one of my favorites

What do you mean, "blank slate"?

by boobs on Aug 15, 2008 3:59 PM EDT up 0 recs

Terry Crowley=LLM?

Overserved and underwhelmed.

by Pops Daniels on Aug 15, 2008 4:24 PM EDT up 0 recs

No

Crowley was released by Cincinnati.

by Red Menace on Aug 15, 2008 4:30 PM EDT up 0 recs

Alas

Overserved and underwhelmed.

by Pops Daniels on Aug 15, 2008 5:02 PM EDT up 0 recs

Another wacky tie-breaker

China defeated favored Taiwan (or “Chinese Tapei,” per the IOC) in the 12th. I don’t know if China tried to bunt, but with the runners on first and second in the 12th their leadoff hitter walked, which was followed by a single, another walk, and another single. China’s manager Jim Lefebvre showed that the Dodger Way can boost even the most inexperienced of teams in international play.

Good thing nobody in Taiwan is overreacting.