Great Moments in Competitive Imbalance: Texas High School Baseball Edition

This is what some Orioles fans want you think playing in the AL East is like:

Late on a school night, in a game already delayed because of lightning, Richardson Lake Highlands High School came to bat in the top of the fifth inning leading Dallas Samuell by around 30 runs. Then they scored another 20 or so. The final score was either 53-0, like the scoreboard read, or 57-0, like the winning coach tallied it up.

That’s the intro to an interesting story about amateur ethics (or “etticks” if you prefer). There’s a mercy rule about ending games like that, but this one was out of hand even before the mercy rule kicked in. There’s a fail safe “we both agree to give up” rule too, but apparently no one really knows about it. There’s some interesting talk towards the end of the article about potentially turning the end of games like these into mini-clinics, but I can’t help but think that the guys on the losing side really don’t want to be treated like students to the other side’s teachers.

As a parent of kids just getting started in sports, this stuff interests me. For now, I think the way they do things in my son’s soccer league is the best: don’t keep score, and make sure everyone at least has a snack to look forward to after the game is over.