HS Blow-out
 

Which one of you Seattle guys called the Woodinville-Franklin game that made this week's Sports Illustrated? Final score was 64-0! :eek:

My DD is now the athletic trainer for Redmond High. She told me that Franklin was probably the worst team she'd ever seen.

bkbjones and I were keeping this one silent for as long as possible on here... it looks like it's silent no more! :D The game was March 21st.

bkbjones was scheduled to work that very game, but didn't. (I'll let him go into it). I can tell you that we had two very experienced umps on that game. Franklin's an inner-city team, Woodinville is a suburban team. Both 4A schools. Woodinville was state champ in 2005, and placed 3rd last year.

There's a lot more to it than that, but I'll let bkbjones talk more about it. :eek:

Sean,

Don't worry, nothing out of the bag that didn't hit eteamz. About a week ago, I think.

Yah, I was supposed to work this (with the guy who eventually was the base umpire - talk about stealing money, just stay in C and close your eyes). Lost the game about two days before so I could go do a game that ended up 21-2. Of course everyone deserves good umpires, right?

I thought mine was bad. Little did I know what would transpire that night.

From a friend of a friend of a friend who is also an umpire, I heard the first report of this game.

Lotsa folks have said lotsa things. Everyone has been thrown under the bus, from inner city leaders to the coaches to the umpires. The coach of the winning team had to change his phone number. He's been excoriated in the press. Others in the media have said (paraphrasing) there is no need to impose tougher "mercy" rules. The losing team new they had lost - but as they have said many times, they will get their retaliation on the basketball court next year (their boys and girls programs are perennially extremely good).

Could the umpires have done "something?" Sure. They could have made an even bigger mockery of the game. The strike zone was enlarged, but not to nonsensical proportions. And, why have everyone step off the bag? In the first inning? Second inning? That makes a mockery of the game, too.

This game was like "The Perfect Storm." Everything fell just right -- or just wrong, depending upon one's perspective.

The other thing that hasn't been discussed much is the grief some of the Woodinville girls have taken from faculty members at their own school. These are self-righteous folks who don't give a damn about athletics anyway. It's shameful. (disclosure: I am a resident of this school district, and my son -- the one who has sired our first grandchild -- is a 2000 graduate of Woodinville. My daughter graduated from their archrival two years later.)

One thing is for certain about this game. The only people pi$$ed off about it are adults. The kids from both schools were fine about it, and they will be fine when they play again. Unfortunately, Franklin has had to forfeit some games because of various issues. The kids will survive, while adults continue blathering. Of course, we don't play these games for the good of the kids -- just ask all these self-righteous adults who would NEVER let THEIR kids do something like THAT.

Having been around softball as long as I can remember, and just getting into the umpiring side of it this year, I've seen plenty of examples of this (though never this drastic). I went online and looked at some news articles about the stories, and from all reports, it looks like it was a no-win situation for the coach.

I can remember the first time my sister joined a travel softball team. The first game, they were getting killed, something like 15-0 going into the top of the second inning. The opposing team's coach began having players leave bases earlier, etc, just to get his girls out, and keep the score reasonable. The only people upset that they were doing were the girls themselves. The girls, regardless of the score, wanted to play ball. The game eventually ended (though I don't remember what the final score was, I remember it was a shutout in the high-20s), and the girls were fine with it. The icing on the cake was when the girls met the same team in a tournament at the end of that same year, and lost 5-4 in the finals. They lost the finals of that tournament, but you would have thought they'd won the World Series.

All that being said, I think the best thing to do is for the adults to shut up and let the girls play ball. I'm sure the girls would enjoy it much better that way. There's not much the coach can do, other than putting in his subs, and scaling back offense (no stolen bases, etc.), but if a pitcher is walking everyone, or the players are making easy singles, what can you do? The umpires can't do a thing. They're obligated to call the game within a certain set of rules, which is irrespective of the score (though I am all for enlarging the strike zone reasonably in this case).

Last night I got the chance to talk in person to the PU on that game. Like bkbjones said above, it was the perfect storm.

Woodinville was the home team. They had scored the 64 runs by the completion of the 3rd inning. All 3 outs in the bottom of the 4th were from runners on 1B leaving early (i.e.: no score in the 4th inning.) They played the top of the 5th, and were done.

Not much he or his partner could do... they couldn't manufacture outs where there wasn't an out. None of the outs against Woodinville were made by a put-out at 1B.

He opened the zone for Franklin's pitchers as much as he could while still holding some integrity - calling chin to shin, box to box. Even when the pitch came down the middle of the opposite batter's box, Woodinville was reaching out and pegging them for doubles.

A nightmare game for all parties involved.

Hell, that's not a big zone. Try nose-to-toes, dugout-to-dugout! :D

The solution is simple--- "play" for two hours and
go home !!!
Are these folks lame in the brain ??

Do y'all have time limits on HS games in Fort Myers? We only have them for JV (if a varsity game follows).

The worst HS team in Pensacola is much better this year. Last year they lost by 25-30 runs in each 5-inning game. This year they only lose by 12-15. :cool:

Same here "argodad". If a time limit for blow out games
in not OK with FHSAA, maybe a 15 run/3 inning mercy rule
(10 runs in five innings) would
work. It would pretty much give the winning team 3 innings of BP
and then put and end to the needless slaughter !

Our blow out games don't go on for long. Michigan game ending rules allow:
10/5
15/3
Losing coach to ask for game to be ended with no penalty.

Never had a coach give up, but more than a few games have ended after 2 1/2 innings.

WMB

Years ago when we were still playing JV slow pitch the score was 35-0 after the first inning. The loosing coach had had enough asked what would happen if they quit. I told her it would be a forfeit with a score of 7-0. She smiled big and said Oh, that would be fine. Called her girls out for the end of game cheer.

I know , I know the score would really be 35-0, but she was so happy to only loose by 7.

Florida HSAA is strict about their decision to have only a 10-after-5 run rule. A few years ago the coach on the losing end of a 23-0 game offered to end it after 3. It was getting dark. The umpires, who should have known better, allowed it. We had to get the teams and umpires back together on a different day to finish the 29-0 massacre.

Do they override the coaches right to forfeit in Florida???

No. The coach can forfeit, but FHSAA penalizes schools and coaches who forfeit. It's better to keep on going until you get your 5 innings (or 4 and a half, if you're lucky).