Comments on: Mercy rule approved

By: Highly interested

Highly interested — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 21:33:01 +0000

Ken:
W’re all trying to understand your connection between Roman emperors determining life and death, and MSHSL determining that 35 points is wrong.

BigGuy:
Tere were a lot of kids hurt this year when they were behind by 35? Were fewer hurt when they were behind by 33? I’ve watched too many zebras put away their whistles in the last 3 minutes of very close games, and that’s when there is a real safety issue because some kids will do anything to win. You’re saying that kids get more out of control trying to lose by less than 35, than when trying to win when the game is on the line? That’s just wrong.

By: BigGuy

BigGuy — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 02:25:48 +0000

Again this has nothing to do with someone’s feelings. It has to do with Safety. Also seeding has nothing to do with someone’s feelings. It has more to do with not enough information or confidence in who the 5-8 seeds are.

I think every and fan should have to officiate their child or team’s sport once. There is a reason officials can work seven days a week. Parent’s, fans and, Coaches.

By: Ken

Ken — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 20:26:46 +0000

Mr. Webster defines “mercy” as compassion shown to victims of misfortune. This is nothing new in sports. The Roman emperors did it all the time with thumbs up or down.

By: Highly interested

Highly interested — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 19:52:29 +0000

What a horrible rule! The do-gooders who want to protect kids’ self esteem have done the opposite. “Failure” has now been defined by the MSHSL. The kids will feel worse because once running time starts, they have officially failed. Before this rule, failure was relative - did you fail more getting beat by 37 rather than 34? These are the same guys who won’t seed an 8-team 3A or 4A State tournament from top to bottom because they don’t want to label anyone #8. So, they blind draw the last 4 teams. That way, they’re all “losers”. OMG! This can happen only in MN - and we wonder why people in other states make fun of us.

By: Jon

Jon — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 21:25:42 +0000

Boss - I agree with you about the mercy rules being a bad idea. However the point about not being able to set individual records is a moot one since we already have expanded the games from 32 minutes to 36 minutes by going from quarters to halves. Also, a lot of schools are now playing 25 or 26 regular season games versus the 22 played in the past. All records are all going to get broken based on the the fact that players today are playing longer games and they are playing more of them each year.

By: FBCOACH

FBCOACH — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 20:42:44 +0000

This is a bad idea. If a team is up by 35 in either sport, more times than not a coach will have his subs in anyway.
If they want to start having higher quality contests they should start by educating and holding higher standards for referee’s in all sports. Watching many football and basketball games this past year I have watched a lot of bad calls. Too many anticipation fouls.

By: REF TOO

REF TOO — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:19:19 +0000

Hockey has had running time for years which I believe a 6 goal differential. I have never heard a complaint. This is merely a safety issue and it’s not like it’s 20 points, it’s 35!!!.

The running time rule will affect a small number of games. I’ve been part of blow-outs where coaches and fans get mad about any foul call, but now they are made when the MSHSL is doing something about these safety issues.

Of all the football and basketball games I worked this year, 3 would have had running time. That is about 3% of the games.

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 01:09:31 +0000

There is a part of the rule that makes no sense. say you are using Running time in the 4th (Down 35)and you have 2nd string players in than all of a sudden you score a TD so than they say okay we are under 30 with 2:00 to go now we stop the clock, same in Basketball. Why not go a step further than if they go up 50 than just end the game. Might as well go the whole nine yards.

By: BC Beneke

BC Beneke — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 22:53:01 +0000

I am not in favor of the mercy rule, I’m dead set against the 10 run rule in baseball, and I think that if you are the unfortunate team… there are still positives. Those 9 minutes that are being cut were the 9 minutes that the lesser talented kids were getting to play. In a blowout in baseball, that is when that left fielder gets to come in and live his dream and get to pitch an inning. Maybe that 9th grader that dressed for Varsity, but hasn’t gotten to play… he gets the opportunity, and that is invaluable for the future.

We spend too much time worrying about hurting someone’s feelings when it comes to an opportunity to help, to teach, and to coach the children that need to be coached the most.

So now you are either going to end up forcing coaches with talented player to teach those players how to not play full out which I think is a sin against sports competition… you play 100% all the time!

We cannot teach kids how to play the game when we are only playing the top kids… blowouts are good for coaching, and you can now judge your community high school’s coaches about how they handle blowouts on both sides.

Sorry that I’m old fashioned, but I don’t like hockey because there are TIES. I like winning, and I accept losing… I will never teach my children that a tie is a good deal. When my kids are playing sports if they knock someone down, they offer their hand to pick them back up, but they will knock them down again if they get the chance. It’s teaching them how to win, and how to make their teams better. Neither child is the star athlete, but they are still being taught how to hold themselves as athlestes, and not just kids collecting dust on the back the bench.

Schools want to charge 50-300 dollars or more to play sports, and then you charge money to view those kids. Shame on you for trying to teach children how to lose, and how to coast, and then charge us for the experience of watching you do this to our children.

By: Rick

Rick — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 22:07:55 +0000

Pretty soon the MSHSL will make certain that no one wins or loses a game. The teams will simply compete for a set amount of time and no score will be kept. Another politically correct move by the completely inept and clueless MSHSL. Everyone gets a trophy!!!!!