11/21/24
March 13, 2019
SportsFilter: The Wednesday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
Please explain yourself, sir
posted by NoMich at 10:54 AM on March 13, 2019
I think he's referring to Champions League knockout rounds, especially the result in the current round in Europe.
posted by billsaysthis at 11:16 AM on March 13, 2019
Thank you billsays for taking care of what I should have covered at the top.
posted by beaverboard at 01:25 PM on March 13, 2019
If that were to be done, then 'away runs' should count double as do away goals. A degree in accounting would be necessary to figure out the possibilities.
posted by Howard_T at 02:20 PM on March 13, 2019
The problem with 2-game aggregate score in baseball (without doubling runs for visitors) is that the home team in the first game gets a significant advantage (by not being the home team in the second game), or it leads to some real messed up competitive situations.
Let's take this example:
Team A is the home team in game 1, and wins by 3 runs. In the second game, if they have the lead in the game, their strategy is no longer to play to win, but play to lose by 2 runs or less. If they have the lead or are tied going into the bottom of the ninth, then they want the game to end in a way that can't allow Team B to score and win by 3+ runs (walk-off grand slam when trailing by one or tied). So if Team B were to ever get in that position, they'd simply intentionally walk the "winning" run in (thus losing by only 1 run).
Another scenario could be Team A LOSES at home (by X runs) in the first game. Now their only chance is to win the second game by X+1 runs. If they are leading after the top of the 9th inning by less than X runs, then things go really haywire.
Team A (leading by < X runs) needs to allow Team B to tie the game in the bottom of the 9th so they can potentially score X+1 runs in the top of the 10th (and allow zero runs in the bottom of the 10th), but at the same time not allow Team B to win. Team B, however, wants the game to end in the 9th, even if they lose the game (because they'll win on aggregate score).
So now Team B is trying to score no runs, and Team A is trying to get them to score runs...but not too many. So Team A induces Team B to get two easy outs (strikeouts, contact without running, whatever), and then proceeds to intentionally walk (new version, no pitches thrown) one batter at at time, and then intentionally balk that base runner around the bases to score each time (because you don't want multiple runners on base when the score is tied). When the score is finally tied, now they need to get that final out, so Team B has to start trying again.
It's basically a baseball version of The Barbados Football Incident.
posted by grum@work at 04:14 PM on March 13, 2019
Speaking of wacky ways of determining outcomes in sports ...
As a kid I remember watching Montreal's last game of the 1970 NHL season with my grandfather. Montreal had to win, tie, or score 5 goals to make the playoffs. With Chicago up 5-2 and about 9 minutes left in the 3rd period Montreal pulled their goalie. Didn't work out though, they lost 10-2.
Was able to hunt down the date as April 5th 1970 but haven't found footage. Remains the most bizarre game I've ever watched to this day.
posted by cixelsyd at 05:59 PM on March 13, 2019
MLB should consider putting in a two leg aggregate runs scored playoff for the wild card round. Shit would happen.