The Mercy Rule

[Cannonball]

What about the pitcher on these teams with less ability? Would you have them stay out there knowing that the team is being embarrassed and that she can't get an out? The Mercy Rule is just fine.

In HS ball last fall, we were playing a team that was overmatched but in the conference. The coach came over and asked that we simply stop the game. The umpire said that my team had the winning run on 3rd and that the game will end when that run crossed the plate. The coach took her team off of the field saying that she was not going to allow her team to be embarrassed. We had stepped off the base each inning to prevent a slaughter. Would you have this team stay out there?

I thought that this poster made a good point so I bumped it.

 

[_MIA_]

I thought that this poster made a good point so I bumped it.

That guy is an as*..ignore him.

 

[Greatdaytobeawildcat]

I remember coaching a 10u end of July tournament, where the run rule was 12 after 3. In the bottom of the 3rd, up 11-0, but with 2 outs, I had our runner steal second. It was 300 degrees and sunny, and we only had 2 pitchers, so I was just trying to get us through the game without having to throw another inning. By the other coaches' reactions you would have thought I murdered somebody. If there wasn't a run rule, I wouldn't have had her steal. But also, if there wasn't a run rule we likely would have gone on to win 20-0. It was kind of a weird ethical situation.

 

[LEsoftballdad]

We have a High School team by us that stinks so badly that they haven't won a game in the six years my girls have been playing school ball. Last year, they walked our team 28 times twice. In fact, one of their *pitchers* threw the ball over the backstop on two occasions. Without the mercy rule, we might still be batting in the first game from last May.

Beating them does nothing for our girls' development. My daughter strikes out the side in every inning with no effort, and our team never gets to swing the bats. I think in this case, you need to keep the rule in place. If you look at MLB games where a team has a 12-0 lead after five innings, you can probably count how many times the losing team comes back to win on both hands.

 

[cnardone]

Hmmm seem to recall young ages in rec ball having run rule per inning to offset the mega scoring rallies?!

Our LL did has a 5 run max during the season. Playoffs no. All star no. The examples I gave were my DD 11U All star team. And yes, we had to have girls step off the base to keep it to 20 runs.

 

[radness]

It seems the rule exists because there is already the consideration that teams are going to be outmatched.

Thinking about the impression it makes would not look at ending the game early as a reward to the winning team as much as I think it's a kick in the butt to the losing team.

 

[_MIA_]

It seems the rule exists because there is already the consideration that teams are going to be outmatched.

Thinking about the impression it makes would not look at ending the game early as a reward to the winning team as much as I think it's a kick in the butt to the losing team.

Playing against much better competition once in a while is a good thing. However you get most of the "good" in the innings you do get your butt kicked since it basically shows the players and coaches where they are and where they need to be if they want to compete with the team that kicked their rear ends. Playing another additional X amount of innings won't do much towards that. Get back to practice and get to work..

 

[JayW]

It seems the rule exists because there is already the consideration that teams are going to be outmatched.

Thinking about the impression it makes would not look at ending the game early as a reward to the winning team as much as I think it's a kick in the butt to the losing team.

Or that the game has reached its conclusion earlier than expected. And most tournaments don’t reward a team for piling on runs. The margin of victory is limited for tiebreaker purposes so as not to encourage scoring as many runs as possible. Runs allowed is usually the first tiebreaker.

 

[JumboJack]

In fact, one of their *pitchers* threw the ball over the backstop on two occasions. Without the mercy rule, we might still be batting in the first game from last May.

Sorry, that’s pretty funny.
High school ball is crazy. Like Eric F Mentioned above, some teams have only a handful of travel ball players (if any) while others have teams that are so good that some travel ball players don’t even make varsity.

My DD’s former HS team has 3 TB players this season and a couple starters that have never played organized ball at any level. They have won a few games by run rule, and been run ruled a few times.
In both instances the winning team started to step off early to stop the bleeding.


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[radness]

In both instances the winning team started to step off early to stop the bleeding.



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Wonder what the consensus is about doing that?

Which is something coaches will even do early in the game sometimes before run rule would even apply.

Is that humiliating or merciful?

Think there are times coaches do that so that they can get their defense some more work on the field.