The Worst Word in Sports: TIE

I thought we learned our lesson from last year's Hilo / Kamehameha overtime game that ended up in a tie after 9 innings of play. It wasn't a popular decision, especially so close to the playoffs. But I guess not.

If you were listening on Wednesday afternoon, you heard a wacky, wild, and compelling extra innings affair between Kamehameha and Keaau on the Warriors home field. We saw 8 errors, 3 Cougars caught between the basepaths, batters hitting out of order, and an untimely rain delay. This game went to the top half of the 8th inning, and with one on and two out, the rain came down hard enough for the umpires to delay the game. That's where the chaos began.

The rain wasn't showing any signs of letting up, and both umpires met with both head coaches and decided to call the game. That's when I expected to hear that they would suspend the game and finish it either the next day. As I was wrapping up the broadcast, I was told that the coaches and umpires met and that they would play the game over again. But then, the law was set in stone for us.

After I got off the air, BIIF Executive Director Ken Yamase hurried to the field, met with both athletic directors and both head coaches, and made a different decision based on the letter of the law in the league. Here's how he described it to me after the fact (and I'm paraphrasing):

1: The game is called a tie. 7-7 is the final score.

2: Both teams remain with the same record, and if both win on Saturday, they will be tied going into the playoffs.

3: BIIF rules state that a playoff game is only called to decide the top seed / regular season champion in a respective division.

4: Because Keaau and Kamehameha are both tied for 3rd place, a playoff game cannot be played to decide who would be the higher seed, in the event that both take care of business on Saturday.

5: The next option to determine a tie is by head-to-head results. Since they only played once, and it ended in a tie, nothing remains decided (still following me?)

6: The last option to resolve a tie is by coin flip. Both teams defered to having the coin flip after Saturday's games, as long as both teams win or both teams list on Saturday. Both schools athletic directors will be summoned by Mr. Yamase either at his office or at an undisclosed location to flip the coin and determine who will be the 3 seed and who will be the 4.

Hope you caught all of that....why is this so important? The 4th seed would end up playing Waiakea. Waiakea beat Kamehameha by 2 to open the season, and Waiakea beat Keaau by 2 in 10 innings. The 3rd seed would end up playing Hilo, the 2 seed. Keaau beat Hilo earlier in the season, and Kamehameha lost to Hilo by 2 in a game we broadcast a few weeks ago.

What would I do? I would go back another day and finish the game....these players worked so hard and went into extra innings and to call it a tie is such a shame. No one likes to lose, every one loves to win, but all sides never play for a tie.


PS. For those of you listening to Wednesday's edition of the Josh Pacheco show, I said I would put up the clip of the Denver Nuggets coaching staff's intresting pre-game "moshing"...check this out: