Interesting Events Going Down at the LLSBWS

[djcarter1966]

Well apparently they do have rules but as usual don't want to enforce them (assuming article I read was correct). " A manager or coach that takes any action that results in a travesty of the game that results in members performing poorly could be disqualified." I think they realized they could not do anything about the outcome of the game so they thought this playoff was the next best thing.

My big concern here is that they assume that people who put these rules together did not think about the rule and just made stuff up. As someone who has slaved over writing league rules and by-laws I can promised they do think about these thing. Then they also think what is the most appropriate punishment or result. In this instance they realized it was the coach who was at fault and that the girls should not be penalized, so the penalty was coach disqualification.

 

[Lobster Birch]

We are also in no way affiliated with Little League. There does happen to be some girls on this Little League team who also play for our organization as well as coaches who coach for us

You don't say?

http://www.snohomishshock.com/

 

[djcarter1966]

You don't say?

http://www.snohomishshock.com/

This thing happens every day in tournaments all over the country; coaches game the system to give themselves the best advantage to win in the end...while that usually does not involve losing; sometimes it does involve not caring whether you win or lose. In most cases it is rest your starters and let the bench play...the problem here came by the fact that they could not score more than three runs without leaving their toughest competition in the tournament so their plan broke down and it looked bad. If there is one thing LL does not want to do is jeopardize the franchise by looking like they will stand by and do nothing when a team does something to tarnish the integrity of the game hence you get what just happened.
[MENTION=635]shockcoach[/MENTION] to Lobster Birch's point your statement was pretty self serving and disingenuous there are 9 girls from your 14U-Miller team playing...it the same team

The problem is this was on a national stage and LL felt they had to do something to try and make it right. I feel the worst for the girls they could have easily won the whole thing but your coach really let them down trying to be too clever by half.

 

[darken]

Coach Kevin,

Under no circumstances does the organization do, or advocate this. We have a very good reputation locally and down in Oregon and we wish to maintain this. We are also in no way affiliated with Little League. There does happen to be some girls on this Little League team who also play for our organization as well as coaches who coach for us. We have been pulling for them this summer, as would any organization who has girls getting this far. The situation is a mess and the coach will abide by the ramifications of his decisions. Unfortunately, so will his players.

So I guess we can expect a full investigation by your organization into the conduct of your coaches in this matter? If the accusations are genuine, what will be the consequences? Your organizations reputation is at stake here...

 

[Lobster Birch]

Quick IT work there, Shock!

 

[canyonjoe]

Assuming these teams are pretty good teams (not saying they are ASA National Champs) and the players are away of what is going on. Had he pulled this off and the won the championship, how could they look back at this game and not have it tarnished. I could see in 10 years the reunion fondly remembering the game we threw in order to win the national championship because we were afraid of that other team? If they had sat their top players and just went out and played I wouldn't care, but I'm sure they told the kids not to score 3 runs. You might have gotten away with this at the XYZ summer classic, but in the LL World series they have a brand to protect and this is something they won't tolerate even though they caused some of it by stupid rules.

 

[dbronstein]

If they had sat their top players and just went out and played I wouldn't care ..... this is something they won't tolerate even though they caused some of it by stupid rules.

Completely agree on both counts. Nothing wrong with resting players and giving lesser players more playing time in a game that's meaningless to your team. But you throw a game.

And perhaps a better tournament format that would avoid these situations would be better. Maybe playing a double elimination tourney within each pool rather than round-robin. (Not saying this would be the best solution, just using it as an example of something where you want to win every game.) This is like the Olympic badminton match where both players were trying to throw it because the winner would have a tougher matchup than the loser.

 

[MTR]

Except that the girls on the West team go home - presumably not due to their talent, but due to their jackass coach who felt he had to game the tournament.

While I agree that the Central team got what they deserved, the West team didn't due to the actions of an "adult". I hope he sleeps well tonight.

-D

I disagree. They failed to qualify through the procedure. Then again, it is LL which is always screwed up

 

[klamath632]

LL is stupid for not playing the final games in each pool simultaneously. The mistake was that one game was played before the other, so that Washington knew exactly what had to be done to keep Iowa out of the bracket, and then they went out and made sure it happened. Considering that teams are are sent home based on the results, it's incredibly damning on the organizers that that the final games weren't played simultaneously.

 

[djcarter1966]

It took the biggest tournament on the planet started in 1930 played every 4 years until 1986 to implement simultaneous pool play final matches because of similar shenanigans. I guess LL just figured since this is all about the "kids" and not adults fighting for fame and glory they would not have to worry about it.

My guess is though because of TV contracts they end up not going to simultaneous pool finals (although goodness knows ESPN has more than enough channels to make it work) since these rules would apply across all LL organizations...my guess is they just explicitly state in the rules that if it happens again the team will simply be eliminated from the tournament. Although another interesting tidbit that I think happened if I remember right was the tournament or US committee did not uphold the appeal so it went to the next level the International committee that upheld the protest...does that mean the US LL folks were going to let this go?

The WA state softball director put out the following statement, that I think sums up the situation from the WA state team perspective casting them in the best possible light but admitting what happened:
"Our coach was faced with a decision that, in the bubble of intense competition, appeared to him to be in the best interest of our team. In hindsight, it is very likely he would have made a different choice. Though the decision that Coach Miller made did not violate the letter of the rules, I can see abundant evidence that it was not in line with the spirit of the game."