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Mountaineer,
Read a little more into the tournament rules that you cited, and I guess I interpret it a little differently than you do. I could be wrong, but I interpret the statement "A game is NOT considered shortened if the home team does not complete the bottom of the 6th or 7th inning due to winning the game" to mean that if a team goes ahead by 10 runs in the 6th or 7th inning and it is stopped by the mercy rule, that in that particular instance the game is not considered shortened. It would still be considered shortened if the mercy rule is invoked in the 4th or 5th inning. Rule 9-d states "To be assured of meeting the minimum play requirements, in a complete game, all substitutes who have not entered the game previously SHOULD ENTER THE GAME DEFENSIVELY at or before the start of their half of the third inning (visitors) or fourth inning (home)."
I could very well be wrong, but it seems to me that they are trying to make sure that a manager doesn't have the ability to cover his mistake of not meeting MPR by piling on runs in the last inning.
Of one thing I believe there is no doubt...that with the MPR now being only three defensive outs and one at-bat, there is no reason that a manager should not be able to fulfill that. It was a little harder when the MPR at tournament time were still six defensive outs and one at-bat.
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