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Subject: Re: A Real Softball Author: MFK [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] Date Posted: 10:24:34 05/13/24 Mon In reply to: John Harvard 's message, "Re: A Real Softball" on 14:05:20 05/12/24 Sun Thanks. Not sure that I agree that that's fair, but then again, what is. [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

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[> [> [> [> [> Subject: Re: A Real Softball Author: An Observer [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 11:23:55 05/13/24 Mon John Harvard's logic sounds on target and I'm confident that some version of his train-of-thought is the official rationale. I'll just note that, while virtually all sports exhibit some degree of home field advantage, baseball and softball are two of the few where, besides all the intangible benefits of sleeping in your own bed, home crowd and its attendant influence on officiating et cetera, there is a tangible home field advantage baked right into the rules. Namely, the home team has the enormous advantage of being allowed to bat last. I guess the folks who designed the ground rules for a double elimination tournament decided that, once you get to a Game Seven winner take all context, the winner's bracket contestant has lost the same number of games as the loser's bracket contestant (one loss apiece) and it's time to balance out the home field advantage. Little known trivia: In both baseball and softball, the home team has the OPTION to bat first if desired. Of course no home team ever declines to bat second, although I can think of some obscure scenarios where that might make sense. I doubt that most managers even know that they have the CHOICE as the home team.

[> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: When Might Harvard as The Home Team Choose to Bat First? Author: An Observer [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 12:49:18 05/13/24 Mon Just for fun, I've been trying to come up with the most likely situation of all the obscure scenarios in which the home team might want to bat in the top half of the inning. Interestingly, I think that Sunday's Harvard-Princeton series would actually have been a possibility. In my opinion, here's what it would take for a home team to want to bat first. Imagine that there had been a rain delay at any time on Sunday before the start of the second game. Now, it's very late in the afternoon. Because the NCAA tournament field would be chosen later that night, both Harvard and Princeton know that they will play and finish their deciding championship game, no matter how many innings it takes. They need a winner by Sunday night, period. Now imagine that both teams plan to send their best pitcher to the mound for the deciding game, which it seems they did, although I don't know either roster well enough to say for sure. Therefore, both coaches know that it will probably be a low-scoring game and it's not unlikely that 1-0 will win it, which of course is the actual final score which resulted. Well, if I think 1-0 will win the game, then batting second is less of an advantage than usual because it's very unlikely that I will come to bat in the bottom of the last inning knowing that I need three runs or four runs specifically. I don't know if the Princeton softball field has lights, but I heard my favorite softball announcer Cindy Cohen say that it's only a temporary field. So assume for the time being that Princeton didn't want to pay for lights on a field which they won't be using next year or thereafter. Tiger softball fans can confirm or refute this supposition. If all those circumstances were to come together like that, I could actually imagine Harvard head coach Jenny Rohn taking the unprecedented step of CHOOSING to bat in the top of each inning even though the Crimson are the designated home team. Why? Because as the sun sets later in the game, the lighting will be better in the top half of every inning compared to the bottom half. If I think a pitcher's duel is likely, I want my batters to get the better lighting in every inning. If we go to extras, the lighting is going to get very relevant and I want my women batting when it's as bright as possible.