Growing ridiculousness of sports overtime rules

[kewlJ]

Disclaimer: Last night's first of it's kind all-star game "swing off" inspired this thread, but not because I lost a wager. My wagers were on each team's team over, so both bets would have won, no matter what they did at the end of the game.

In Hockey, we have the shoot out. In college football, they chose to use only 25% of the field and all but eliminate special teams. Baseball added the "ghost runner" a few years back. I guess soccer does a version of the shootout as well (don't watch soccer, so don't care).

And last night you can add to, and IMO surpass all these others with this ridiculous "swing off" to determine the game winner. I guess this rule is only in effect for all-star games, but each of these rules, bastardizes the game applied to. Only thing missing is for the NBA (and college basketball) to break a tie by shooting foul shots or playing the game of "horse". Kudos to them for NOT doing so.

So the rules to this first ever "swing off are that after the game ends in a tie after 9 innings, each manager picks 3 player to participate in a homerun hitting contest, pitched by his own team's coach (basically the same as the HR hitting contest the night before the all star game). So National League picked Kyle Schwarber, Pete Alonso. The American league with Aron Judge, Shohei Ohtani and Cal Raleigh on their roster, couldn't pick any of the 3 because They had all left the stadium early after were taken out of the game. So apparently it is not the best 3 players that are picked, it is the best players that bothered to stay around and not leave early. Just a bad, bad look!!

The all star game is an exhibition game. Has no meaning. Stats don't count towards anything except all star stats. The game no longer determines home field in the World series as it did for a few years, so what is wrong with having the game end in a tie? For that matter, what is wrong with any sporting event ending in a tie? If you look back through history, many games, NHL, NFL, college football all ended in ties. Where did this "God forbit we can't have a tie" come from? Does sports betting have a role in this "no ties" era?

[theywontpayontuesday]

They just dont want to unduly endanger any player in an exhibition game. The All Star game is a reward to the players themselves shouldn't put players at risk since the risk is disproportionate in baseball. Anyone that has started, played and came out, is out for good, so the least worthy members would have to sacrifice their own team's performance for a meaningless game.

[theywontpayontuesday]

The win or loss is only important truly to bettors and whomever wins the mvp award because usually the mvp goes to the winning team.

[kewlJ]

They just dont want to unduly endanger any player in an exhibition game. The All Star game is a reward to the players themselves shouldn't put players at risk since the risk is disproportionate in baseball. Anyone that has started, played and came out, is out for good, so the least worthy members would have to sacrifice their own team's performance for a meaningless game.

Thank you. You just gave all the reason why it should have been recorded as a tie. I agree with all you said.

So back to my final question. The sports books graded the game as a national league win. And I think that is REALLY what is behind this push to not have any ties in any sports events. With ties all money is refunded. Sports books need a winner to make money. So what if that winner is determined by a guy hitting off his own coach (like we did when I was 6 years old).

[kewlJ]

Ties aren't the end of the world. Everyone knows there is a scoring system for the standings. win = 2pts, tie 1 pt, loss 0 points. So having a few ties on a couple teams record don't change anything.

I had almost forgotten, but the NFL STILL has ties. They play an overtime and if no one scores, the game is a tie. That is what every sport should do. Hockey: extend the 5 minute overtime to 10 minutes and if no one scores, it is a tie. No stupid shootout. Baseball should play a couple extra innings (with no ghost runner) and if no one scores it is a tie.

And there would be strategies based on having ties. A team a few points back in the standings that needs a win, would play more aggressive.

[kewlJ]

The win or loss is only important truly to bettors and whomever wins the mvp award because usually the mvp goes to the winning team.

MVP last night: Kyle Schwarber. He went 0-2 in the game, but hit 3 pitches off his own coach in the goofy swing off, so was named MVP. What about Alonzo who hit a 2 run homerun in the actual game, or Rooker who hit a 3 run homer in the actual game?

I go back to the game is decided by a coach pitching to a hitter trying to hit the ball over the fence. A coach! Again back to pee-wee baseball when the coach stood 10 feet away and tossed the ball underhand for the player to hit.

It bastardizes the game. In this case baseball, but any sports that comes up with artificial rules to break a tie in overtime.

I have said my piece.

[theywontpayontuesday]

The win or loss is only important truly to bettors and whomever wins the mvp award because usually the mvp goes to the winning team.

MVP last night: Kyle Schwarber. He went 0-2 in the game, but hit 3 pitches off his own coach in the goofy swing off, so was named MVP. What about Alonzo who hit a 2 run homerun in the actual game, or Rooker who hit a 3 run homer in the actual game?

I go back to the game is decided by a coach pitching to a hitter trying to hit the ball over the fence. A coach! Again back to pee-wee baseball when the coach stood 10 feet away and tossed the ball underhand for the player to hit.

It bastardizes the game. In this case baseball, but any sports that comes up with artificial rules to break a tie in overtime.

I have said my piece.

Yeah that's bull shit, but how people voted. Truthfully nobody plays enough in all star games to have an honest MVP. They dont get many innings and dont get many at bats. I almost bet on Schwarber too but I bet on nobody because I viewed mvp as a completely random event.