Gilbert Quinonez
Click Here for more articles by Gilbert Quinonez Â
There are no ties in baseball! On July 9, the Major League
Baseball All-Star game was played. For the first ten and a half
innings, the game was one of the best All-Star games I had ever
seen. There were great plays, more offense than usual, and it was a
close, competitive game.
After the top of the 11th inning, I was as excited as I could
be. The game was tied 7-7 and for once, an All-Star game was living
up to the hype. Then, a tragedy occurred. Commissioner Bud Selig
started discussing something with All-Star managers Bob Brenly and
Joe Torre. Brenly and Torre were complaining that they had run out
of pitchers. Selig came up with a brilliant idea. He broke all
rules ever established by baseball and said if the National League
didn’t score in the bottom of the 11th inning, the game would
be declared a tie.
The crowd, along with the rest of the United States, started
chanting, “Let them play!” Trash was thrown at
Selig.
Benito Santiago came up to bat with a runner on second, two
outs, and a chance to win the game. He promptly struck out, and the
players quickly vacated the field. Neither team congratulated
themselves on a great game. No MVP award was given.
One of the reasons that the MLB All-Star game was supposed to be
special was because it was competitive and played like a real game.
No real game during the regular season would ever end in a tie. Why
should the All-Star game?
Actually, why should any game in any sport end in a tie?
Here are four classic examples of overtime games involving UCLA
teams where ties would not have been acceptable. All of these are
from the 2001-2002 school year.
1) Men’s Basketball ““ March 17, 2002. UCLA 105,
Cincinnati 101 (2 OT)
This was a traditional March Madness upset game, with the Bruins
staying close the whole game and coming back at the end. Both teams
had the lead, lost it, had it and lost it again at the end of
regulation and during the overtimes.
Imagine if Selig were to come onto the court after the first
overtime and proclaim: “In the interest of not injuring the
players and allowing more time for them to study, Steve Lavin, Bob
Huggins and I have agreed to call this game a tie.”
Of course, something that bizarre could only happen in MLB.
2) Men’s Soccer ““ Nov. 11, 2001. UCLA 3, Washington
2 (OT).
UCLA needed a win in the last game of the season to secure a
playoff berth. The Bruins were losing 2-1 for almost all of the
second half. In the 88th minute, Matt Taylor scored to force
overtime. A few minutes later, Tony Lawson scored the winning
goal.
How heartbroken would the Bruins have been if the NCAA used the
same rule as the World Cup? In the first round of the World Cup,
ties are given after 90 minutes of play and no overtimes are
allowed.
3) Women’s Water Polo ““ Feb. 24, 2002. Stanford 6,
UCLA 5 (2 OT)
This game could teach a lesson to Bud Selig. This wasn’t a
playoff game, or a very meaningful Pac-10 game. This was just a
tournament at the beginning of the season, and the teams could have
very easily stopped playing and called it a tie.
Just like the MLB All-Star Game was supposed to feature the two
best possible teams, the Bruins and the Cardinal were the best two
teams in the country back then and were at the end of the season
when they faced each other in the national title game.
During the game, UCLA and Stanford alternated goals, and were
tied 4-4 at the end of regulation. Both teams scored once in the
first overtime, and went to sudden death overtime, where Brenda
Villa scored, giving the match to Stanford.
At any game featuring the best two teams in the country, a tie
would determine nothing. Fans want to see which team is really the
best, not have nothing decided at the end.
4) Baseball ““ May 24, 2002. USC 5, UCLA 4 (12 innings)
Unlike the MLB All-Star game where each team used 10 pitchers
each in 11 innings, the Bruins and Trojans used two pitchers
each.
The MLB All-Star game used to be a big rivalry game between the
American League and National League, where both teams badly wanted
to beat the other. They would keep the best players available
playing at all times.
In the UCLA-USC rivalry, the same thing was done. USC’s
Brett Bannister pitched six innings of relief, unheard of in the
major leagues. Even Bruin Doug Silva’s four innings of relief
was unheard of.
A normal baseball roster contains 25 players. Each All-Star
roster had 30 players. In a normal game, all 25 players are never
used. In the All-Star game, all 30 players on each team were
used.
Brenly and Torre claimed they were forced to use all their
players. When did this happen? I’m sure baseball fans
wouldn’t care if Randy Winn, Roy Halladay, Jose Hernandez and
Vicente Padilla didn’t get into the game.
Also, in a real game, if a team were to ever run out of
pitchers, they would have to use one of their other players to
pitch. Most baseball fans, myself included, would have loved to see
Robin Ventura pitch against Junior Spivey instead of a tie.
There is no rational explanation to defend this atrocity. Selig
just gave baseball fans one more reason to hate him. The list of
reasons never stops growing.