I don't even know where to begin with this, primarily because this is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. The International Olympic Committee, which I have tirelessly railed against forever, has decided to go the extra mile and make itself look completely idiotic. How so? Well, they've decided that in the upcoming Olympics that for any game that goes past the 11th inning, each team gets runners on first and second and can choose the point in their batting order to start the inning. That's not a joke.
Maybe I should inform the IOC that this is what slow pitch softball leagues normally do, not major Olympic competitions. Hell, why doesn't the IOC go all the way and just force each team to pound a keg in between each inning.
Of course, you may also know that the IOC is getting rid of baseball after this year's Olympics, so I guess they figured they might as take a huge dump on the game in the process. Well played, IOC.
Now, technically, I realize that the idea here is to not have games go 15, 16 or 20 innings. After all, the expected run rate with men on first and second with no outs is 1.573 runs expected, whereas with no one on and no outs it's 0.555. But when you decide to seriously alter the rules of a sport simply for time constraints, then you're destroying the integrity of the game and its ultimate outcome.
I mean, this rule is as idiotic as saying that if an Olympic basketball game goes into OT, they'll have a dunk contest to see who wins. Although actually, that might be kind of cool.
A new twist to Olympic "baseball" [Beyond the Boxscore]
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