2008 Woodie Awards
Column: Kisses from your sister
Issue date: 4/7/08 Section: Sports
The legendary Alabama football coach Bear Bryant once yelled, "a tie is like kissing your sister."
I could not agree with Bryant more, and that is one of the many things that makes baseball great, outside of one rouge all-star game - there is no tying (or for that matter crying) in baseball!
Baseball always gives you a winner and a loser. Someone gets the "W" and the other the "L." Death, taxes and a winner in baseball: those are all guarantees in life. Baseball standings are easy: win and loss. There is no third category, you win or you lose, and you play as many innings it takes to get a winner … unless you are the Northeastern Huskies.
The Northeastern diamond nine tied yesterday, and I feel dirty just writing that, due to a travel curfew on the visiting UNC Wilmington Seahawks. I know why the Colonial Athletic Association did what they did - UNC-W had a plane to catch and "you have to put the students first" and all that. I get it. But still, a tie? In baseball? Eww.
The last time the Huskies tied was in 1992 when they played Boston College in a 12-inning game to a 5-5 score. The Huskies played the next 16 years finding a way to declare a winner. But yesterday, that was not the case, and after 11 innings of play, no one had a lead and the game was called. The Seahawks had to go.
For the Seahawks it was their first tie since the 1985 campaign when they tied the North Carolina Wesleyan Battling Bishops (great team name, I had to work that in) by a score of 5-5.
Ties quite simply have no place in baseball. Once again, I understand why it was done, and this columnist offers no solutions for the problem at hand. But, quite simply, there should be no ties. NU is now 11-12-1. And one! It just does not look right.
I don't know how I can explain my rational on why tying is acceptable in some sports, and not in others. I have no problem with a tie in hockey or soccer. Yet tying has no place in football, basketball or baseball. The way the game is played, the way the game is scored, you can always get a winner. NFL games rarely make it past the five-minute mark of overtime, basketball usually only takes an overtime and every so often a baseball game takes a few extra innings.
But is that not what makes it great? Edge of your seat - any error could be detrimental! Leave a meatball coming over the plate … game over.
It is what makes baseball … baseball. There are no clocks, no timers, no need for a watch. Games can be two and a half hours or four. There is no other sport that can claim that, it's part of the great mystery that is baseball.
All that's left now for the Diamond Dogs is to pick up the pieces. They are going to have that silly one sitting next to their record for the rest of the year, and hopefully it does not turn into a two. In fact, let's hope they go at least another 16 years without another tie. I can live with a one every 16-year rotation, but I draw the line at 16 years.
Check out 104.9 FM or www.wrbbradio.org to hear all the action of your Huskies.
- Keith Lavon can be reached
at sports@nu-news.com.
I could not agree with Bryant more, and that is one of the many things that makes baseball great, outside of one rouge all-star game - there is no tying (or for that matter crying) in baseball!
Baseball always gives you a winner and a loser. Someone gets the "W" and the other the "L." Death, taxes and a winner in baseball: those are all guarantees in life. Baseball standings are easy: win and loss. There is no third category, you win or you lose, and you play as many innings it takes to get a winner … unless you are the Northeastern Huskies.
The Northeastern diamond nine tied yesterday, and I feel dirty just writing that, due to a travel curfew on the visiting UNC Wilmington Seahawks. I know why the Colonial Athletic Association did what they did - UNC-W had a plane to catch and "you have to put the students first" and all that. I get it. But still, a tie? In baseball? Eww.
The last time the Huskies tied was in 1992 when they played Boston College in a 12-inning game to a 5-5 score. The Huskies played the next 16 years finding a way to declare a winner. But yesterday, that was not the case, and after 11 innings of play, no one had a lead and the game was called. The Seahawks had to go.
For the Seahawks it was their first tie since the 1985 campaign when they tied the North Carolina Wesleyan Battling Bishops (great team name, I had to work that in) by a score of 5-5.
Ties quite simply have no place in baseball. Once again, I understand why it was done, and this columnist offers no solutions for the problem at hand. But, quite simply, there should be no ties. NU is now 11-12-1. And one! It just does not look right.
I don't know how I can explain my rational on why tying is acceptable in some sports, and not in others. I have no problem with a tie in hockey or soccer. Yet tying has no place in football, basketball or baseball. The way the game is played, the way the game is scored, you can always get a winner. NFL games rarely make it past the five-minute mark of overtime, basketball usually only takes an overtime and every so often a baseball game takes a few extra innings.
But is that not what makes it great? Edge of your seat - any error could be detrimental! Leave a meatball coming over the plate … game over.
It is what makes baseball … baseball. There are no clocks, no timers, no need for a watch. Games can be two and a half hours or four. There is no other sport that can claim that, it's part of the great mystery that is baseball.
All that's left now for the Diamond Dogs is to pick up the pieces. They are going to have that silly one sitting next to their record for the rest of the year, and hopefully it does not turn into a two. In fact, let's hope they go at least another 16 years without another tie. I can live with a one every 16-year rotation, but I draw the line at 16 years.
Check out 104.9 FM or www.wrbbradio.org to hear all the action of your Huskies.
- Keith Lavon can be reached
at sports@nu-news.com.
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