Little League softball team throws game, and is then eliminated

4,288 Views | 21 Replies | Last: 8 yr ago by TexasRebel
HTownAg98
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Weird story. A Little League softball team throws a game to force a three-way playoff that would eliminate a team they didn't want to face in the second round. Protests are filed, and the team that filed the protest and the team that threw the game are forced to play a play-in game. The poetic justice in all this is the team that threw the game lost the play-in game. Read the article from the bottom up.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/sports/2015/08/18/little-league-softball-world-series-scandal-iowa-washington-playoff/31894837/

The coach that threw the game should be banned from Little League forever.
Colt98
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AG
I don't see why they had to play. Obviously they didn't want to face that team in the semis. Don't they have a right to loose a game to work in there favor? It's a crap move, no doubt, but banned??? It's part of strategy to win the whole thing, and little league makes an "everyone gets a trophy move". I'm happy the better team won, but still think it was a bad move by LL.
Colt98
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They shouldn't have made it so blatantly obvious. That's where the coaches messed up. It's LL fault for not having a double elim tourney.
Basketball and Chain
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quote:
I don't see why they had to play. Obviously they didn't want to face that team in the semis. Don't they have a right to loose a game to work in there favor? It's a crap move, no doubt, but banned??? It's part of strategy to win the whole thing, and little league makes an "everyone gets a trophy move". I'm happy the better team won, but still think it was a bad move by LL.

Agree. Washington put themselves in the enviable position to control their next round opponents. Iowa had a chance to do the same by beating Washington in pool play, but they lost. The LL ruling is stupid.
Yell Practice
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Little League throws game. Wow! Beginning early.
HTownAg98
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So you all are fine with coach telling his 12-13 year old players to throw a game?
Yell Practice
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No !
HTownAg98
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Sorry, that wasn't directed at you.
Basketball and Chain
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quote:
So you all are fine with coach telling his 12-13 year old players to throw a game?

It gave his team the best chance to win th tournament. Isn't that what they're there for?

This isn't the first time a coach has tried to lose a game on purpose to gain a competitive advantage. It happens at the end of the NBA regular season, too.
Captain Pablo
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Why didn't they just forfeit?

That seems more dignified than throwing a game

Basketball and Chain
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quote:
Why didn't they just forfeit?

That seems more dignified than throwing a game



I doubt forfeiting was an option.
Brauny
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Staff
I'll raise y'all a couple of situations that I've been involved in:

1) Tournament final - In a tight game late, I had my lead off hitter thrown out of the game for not sliding at home plate on a bang-bang play. Nothing malicious, both guys trying to make a play and playing hard. My guy didn't even know the ball was coming home (that's why on deck hitters are important in helping guys coming home). However, I'm hitting my roster (10), so I've got nobody to put in his place in the lineup. Fast forward to the bottom of the last inning, two outs, runner at 2nd & 3rd, and my 10 hole hitter coming to the plate. The opposing coach intentionally walks my guy to bring up that vacated spot in the lineup due to the ejection. Automatic out. Game over. Tournament over. Thoughts?

2) In Lubbock for our national championships, we are heading into the final game of our second pool knowing we have to win the game by at least 4 runs to force multiple tie-breakers to determine who goes on to the quarterfinals (approx 75 team tourney). If we fail to win the game by at least said amount of runs, the opposing team moves on. Long story short, we play a phenomenal ball game but only bring a 3 run lead into the bottom of the 7th. So we had to play the last inning knowing that we weren't going through...unless, we intentionally walk in 3 runs to tie the game, get out of the inning without giving up anymore, and get another shot at trying to plate 4 in the top of the 8th. We played the game and won. I felt it was the honorable move and wanted to play the game with the integrity it deserves.
Colt98
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1. Smart coaching move against your team, some bad luck for your team...I know it stinks but that's how the game is played.
2. Sounds like a lot of work to try and move on. I probably would have attempted it. You drove all the way up to Lubbock for peats sake. Might as well try and do what you can to get to another game.
As for the "throwing games in Little League" comment That attitude is the problem. Im all for the integrity of the game, but if your trying to WIN a national event and the rules allow you to do something to win, why wouldn't you take advantage of it...... But Never mind, I'm sure they gave the team that didn't make it to the semis a medal for participating anyway.... I'm sure they are just has happy with that then a shot at being LLWC.
I personally never care to much for coaches that stall in timed bracket games. But in certain scenarios although I don't care for it and may be on the loosing end, I tip my hat to the coach for being creative enough to pull it off.
RogueAg
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AG
NM
rrtodds
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1st Tie breaker after head to head should always be defense ... points given. That way running up the score or making a decision like taking multiple walks is avoided.

... one man's opinion. Sam 75
Sam75
taxpreparer
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This was stupid. LL has a pitch count that determines when a pitcher becomes eligible to pitch, another game. If a coach wanted to "throw" a game, he she have used his least capable pitcher and claimed to be saving a more talented one for the finals.
TXAggie2011
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quote:
Agree. Washington put themselves in the enviable position to control their next round opponents. Iowa had a chance to do the same by beating Washington in pool play, but they lost. The LL ruling is stupid.
The schedulers put Washington in the position to control their next round opponent. Does Washington throw the game if they play North Carolina on the first, second, or third day and without a ticket to the semifinals secured?

The real problem for me---Does Iowa advance normally if the Washington-North Carolina game isn't scheduled for Day 4?

Iowa was 3-0 in pool play outside of their loss to Washington, including a win against North Carolina.

But because the schedule worked out as such, Washington was able to know they had already advanced and throw a game so that a 2-1 North Carolina team would go 3-1 and cause a three-way tie breaker so that a 3-1 Iowa team that had, again, beat that North Carolina team on Day 1, would be eliminated.

Washington earned a 3-0 record, agreed, but they got really lucky to have the schedule work out how it did.


I always think a governing body has the right to come in if the integrity of games are in question. And especially at the youth level, a team throwing a game to determine the fortune of themselves and 2 other teams calls into the question the integrity of the event.
TXAggie2011
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quote:
This isn't the first time a coach has tried to lose a game on purpose to gain a competitive advantage. It happens at the end of the NBA regular season, too.

Maybe. Many leagues/tournaments actively try to prevent that from being a possibility.

The first example that comes to mind for me is the World Cup or any major soccer tournament, where they start the last round of pool play games at the same time so that teams don't know the result of the other game to prevent manipulation of results.
Basketball and Chain
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The solution to the problem is no pool play. Even with simultaneous start times, the results can still be manipulated.

The B12 had the stupid pool play format in baseball for years, and I think the ACC still does it. You end up with the possibility of meaningless games.

Just play a double elimination tournament where every game matters. Problem solved.
TexasRebel
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When playing a tournament you aren't ever playing to win one game. You play to give yourself the best chance to win the tournament. That usually means winning the next game, but not always.
TXAggie2011
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quote:
When playing a tournament you aren't ever playing to win one game. You play to give yourself the best chance to win the tournament. That usually means winning the next game, but not always.
Yes, you want to win the tournament over a game, but I don't have a problem with the larger governing body coming in and doing something when this happens---and what happened was, by mostly luck, a team was able to intentionally lose a game to eliminate another team and let another team advance.

The larger governing body doesn't have an interest in who wins, but they do have an interest in fairness. There are real questions of fairness in this situation.

The ironic thing is the team they wanted to eliminate quickly was eliminated and the team they wanted to advance won the tournament.


As someone said, being so blatant about it was a bad choice. There isn't a league in the world, professional or not, that wouldn't investigate and probably deal out punishments. (Yes, at the pro level that's certainly partially driven by gambling concerns.)
TexasRebel
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What about it wasn't fair?

The rules were clearly defined beforehand and left unbroken, no?
TexasRebel
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Let's put it this way.

Would a better plan have been to only have 4 players show up and claim the rest were ill?
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