Is It Possible to Win By Too Much? [OPINION]

I know I'm delving into an area that is taboo. I know that by writing this, I'm going to be criticized. I'm not doing this to embarrass any team, but I have to ask the question, "Is it possible to win by too much?"

I know that in baseball and softball there is the 10-run rule. The game is stopped after 5-innings if 1 team is leading by 10 runs. If the visiting team is leading by 10 or more runs in the top of the 5th inning, the home team has the bottom of the 5th to get within 10 runs, or the game is stopped.

I'm not sure if it's a result of Gamechanger and seeing most of the box scores, or because we are trying to write so many recaps on the 92.9 The Ticket website, but I have never seen so many games with lopsided scores. Teams win by 20 plus runs. This past weekend a team won by 45.

Now in looking at most of the box scores of these lopsided games, the winning team isn't stealing. They're not advancing on passed balls or wild pitches. They're just winning.

So do you do anything? Looking at most of the games the teams are substituting. If you play the game right, you can't have your players make intentional outs. You can't have them bat left-handed if they're natural right-handed batters. You can have them go base to base. Don't try and leg out extra-bases. But do you take a JV team up to play a varsity game knowing that Heal Points determine playoff eligibility? Is there anything to do other than just grin and bare it.

I'm concerned about participation rates. I have seen schools have difficulty in fielding teams. Schools are opting to play 8-man soccer because they can't field 11-man sides. Schools don't have enough players to field JV teams, and schools that traditionally had enough for 3 teams, Freshman, JV and Varsity are finding their numbers are down. Blowouts don't help participation rates.

Now maybe this is a result of COVID. Teams were shutdown. Kids decided to do other things than play organized team-sports. Maybe this is just cyclical. Maybe there are children in middle school that are learning the fundamentals and will make these teams better when they get to high school.

I can only hope so.

Again, I'm not trying to embarrass anyone. I'm not being critical of anyone. I'm just bring this out in-front for discussion.

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