Among the proverbs often kicked around is one traced back to Thomas Fuller in 1732 pertaining to the arrival of March weather. Referring to the month as coming in like a lion and departing as a lamb, it depicts a cold, windy, snowy start, eventually giving way to glimpses of spring’s coming beauty and warmth.
With due respect to Mr. Fuller, what will be taking place during March in the indoor environs of Hershey’s Giant Center will both begin and end with lion-like fervor during the PIAA March 3-6 state wrestling championships and the March 27-29 boys’ and girls’ basketball quests for gold.
With anticipation for what awaits, we salute those individuals and teams that have reached the state’s highest level of competition. Their accomplishments in reaching the state’s sports mountaintop have been achieved as the result of competitions filled with both exciting finishes and blowout wins.
From the regular season area basketball perspective, it seems lopsided scores were commonplace, especially among girls’ hoops. A few games saw 50- or 60-point margins of victory with the mercy rule in effect. Even during the early stages of the District IV boys’ playoffs, the running clock was often invoked.
Competition and ‘the thrill of victory’ are sought-after results when two teams begin any sports contest. But not all sports teams are equally skilled, and when the final horn sounds, someone will win, and someone will experience the ‘agony of defeat’ as vividly portrayed years ago by the ABC-TV Wide World of Sports proclamation.
The thrill and the agony are part of sporting events, but decades ago, to ‘soothe’ the souls of those on the wrong side of lopsided games, the Mercy Rule came into play. Its purpose was to ensure fair play and sportsmanship by shortening the game to promote respect among competitors.
Its advent spread like wildfire across the country, with most states implementing their own version of the rule for various sports under differing sets of rules.
In Pennsylvania, the basketball mercy rule kicks in when one team achieves a 30-point lead in the second half. In football, it takes a 35-point second-half lead until the rule is invoked. In baseball and softball, the mercy rule calls for a game to end if one team has a 15-run lead after three innings or a 10-run lead after five innings.
But ‘mercy’ is not the same across the country. Some states use a basketball rule with a 20-point differential; Oklahoma uses a 15-point spread, while California uses a 30-point threshold, the same as Pennsylvania.
When the Mercy Rule point spread is reached, the game clock commences to run off the remaining time continuously. It stops only when a foul is to be shot, a timeout is called, or at the end of a quarter.
At any basketball game, four distinctively different elements are prevalent. They include the players, the coaches, the fans, and the game officials. Each has an important role, but the most important are the players.
High school basketball games play with four eight-minute quarters. Most JV games consist of seven-minute quarters, while Junior High games feature six-minute quarters. Accepting the understanding that teams practice 10-12 hours per week to play games 32, 28, or 24 minutes in length, much practice energy, preparation, and player development are put forth to play those precious game minutes.
While no team enjoys losing, when the Mercy Rule goes into effect, players, especially the lesser-skilled reserve players, are deprived of valuable playing time and a chance to build skills like persistence and resilience during game-like conditions. Cutting game time prevents athletes from fully competing and gaining experience in handling adversity.
Game officials must officiate the game under the rules established by the PIAA. In Pennsylvania, when a foul is called, and a foul shot is upcoming, the game clock continues to run until the referee calls the foul and approaches the scorer’s table, informing the scorekeeper which player committed the foul. While this process takes place, 5-to-10 additional seconds come off the game clock, further reducing the time reserves have to play the game.
Akin to the ‘every player gets a trophy’ syndrome to take away disappointment, the Mercy Rule does more than shorten a game; it further embarrasses players on the losing team who are the recipient of a double whammy; they lose the game AND face the embarrassment of the stigma of a rule established to throw pity in their direction.
Blowout games are not fun for any of the four-game element components listed above, but high school sports are much more than winning or by how much a team loses. There are no mercy rules in the game of life. If something goes wrong on the job, the boss does not speed up the time clock so employees can go home early. Learning to play through adversity is a valued part of competitive athletics, and sports are not graded on a curve.
Mercy, mercy, everyone can have an opinion. There exist coaches hell-bent on running up a score, and athletes on either side of the scoreboard should not be exposed to such circumstances. They also should not be deprived of learnings the lessons sports provide, regardless of the score.
