Hawaii in LL Championship game

[Greg]

The team from Waipahu, Hawaii fought its way through the losers bracket and will play Texas in the US championship game tomorrow at 10:00am(ABC).

The winner plays either Japan/Taipei in the world championship Sunday.

[Erlinda]

They won 10-0! Officials stopped the game after 5 innings under the "mercy rule." Never heard of this before, but apparently if a team is way, way ahead, the powers-that-be can declare a winner before the game is finished to let the losing team safe face.

Guess they're on to Japan now.

I don't even follow sports, but this story is pretty amazing.

[punafish]

Wow, good for them! We'll be rooting for 'em when they go to Japan :-)

[Cagary]

The rule is that when any little league team gets 10 runs ahead (no matter what inning ) the game is over.

The Waipahu team is playing in Williamsport, Pennsylvania where all the Little League Championship games are played.

[punafish]

Speaking of the "mercy rule", here's an interesting cross-cultural take on "sportsmanship" in Japan.

http://japaninsight.wordpress.com/2010/0...umiliated/

[aline]

They had lost their first game and had to come back and win five in a row to win the championship. What an amazing group of kids and coaches. I will be cheering for them today when they go up against Japan for the world championship. Fun to see such a great game and know they are playing for the love of the sport and not money,maybe some of the major leaguers could take some lessons from them

[JerryCarr]

Alas, Waipio has lost to Japan 4-1 in the world championship game. Still a great accomplishment to get that far.

[Greg]

Tim,
Interesting Japanese take on the "mercy rule".

In my younger days I played in a regular neighborhood weekend "pick up" softball game(coed, of course).

What we would do if the score started to get out of hand is have the two teams switch scores. The lowly trailing team would suddenly be fighting to protect their lead, and the former leaders would be attempting a massive comeback.

The game stayed interesting.

[8D]

[punafish]

Greg, sounds like you had some fun-loving friends. Don't think your fun-loving version of the "mercy rule" would fly in Japan because they generally don't play sports for fun. In fact, American pro ball players who have done a stint or two in the Japanese major leagues say, "Americans PLAY ball, Japanese WORK ball". And it's true: the concept of "sport" didn't exist in Japan. When baseball was introduced to Japan in the late 1800s, the closest concept they had to sports was "Bushido" or "martial arts". And that says it all, exactly how the Japanese approach the game. We have fun, they "build character."

What does this have to do with Puna...well....lots of Japanese retirees live in my neighborhood! A big stretch no doubt. Hope Rob will indulge me just for this one post. :-o
(Edited because I posted before finishing my first cup of coffee.)